iSakura
by another.creative.lover
Summary: /SasuSaku/ A girl's iPod is everything. What happens when Sasuke finds Sakura's iPod? Drama unfolds, of course! A story of how music and other people bring two people, who have once been apart, together.
1. iLost It

**iSakura**

**By annee loves sasusaku**

**A/N and Disclaimer:** The characters of Naruto and the songs used in here are not mine and are solely the creators.

**Chapter 1**

**iLost It**

**-xxx-**

"Bye, mom! I'm off!" cried a pretty rosette girl as she clambered toward her car with a gigantic suitcase.

"We'll miss you, honey!" returned a middle-aged woman who appeared to be the pink-haired girl's mother. "Be safe in college, okay, Sakura?"

Sakura, already done with shoving the gargantuan suitcase into the back seat, looked over her shoulder to grin at her mom. "Don't worry! I'll be fine," she told her mother, flashing a smile before climbing into the driver's seat. Keys in the ignition, Sakura pulled out a small square-ish device that she always held close: her iPod. She smiled at it before putting the ear-buds on and placing the iPod itself in a safe position where it would stay in balance on the way to the university. As she pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road that took her to the college, Sakura giggled to herself. Finally! She was finally in her first year of medical school after four long years of strenuous work on getting her bachelor's degree. Although she knew that she would have to face at least five more years of college before actually getting herself a position as an assistant in Konoha hospital. Sakura sighed, knowing that the rest of medical college wasn't going to be so easy. As she pulled into the university's parking lot, Sakura thought to herself, "Well, at least I know where I'm going." She grabbed the iPod from out of her car and slammed the door behind her, resuming her ear-buds and her song.

She smiled as the song that played, _The Great Escape _by BoysLikeGirls, reminded her of her graduation.

_**Paper bags and plastic hearts**_

_**Are all belongings in shopping carts,**_

_**It's goodbye, but we got one more night.**_

_**Let's get drunk and ride around,**_

_**And make peace with an empty town,**_

_**We can make it right…**_

It was right after graduation that she had added this song to her playlist. "Hm…let's see…how exactly did that happen?" Sakura murmured to herself as she began recalling her senior year in high school.

_(Flashback)_

"_WHOO- HOO!"_

_ It was that time of year where new things began and old things were memories, when growing up became everything: Graduation. Everyone had thrown their hats up in the air, blue and white colored the sky. After the celebration, the valedictorian's speech (Sakura's speech), and the hat tossing, everyone was trying to find their friends, making arrangements for further celebrations. _

_ "Sakura!"_

_ The younger looking rosette girl turned around at the call of her name, finding a blond young man and a tall, dark-haired man of the same age that was trailing behind. Sakura smiled at the blond as he pounced her with a giant, bone-crushing hug. "Sakura!" he squealed, his blue eyes gleaming in happiness. "Sakura, I did it! Believe it! I made it out of high school!" The blond waved his diploma for emphasis. _

_ Sakura smiled at him again, only wider this time. "Of course, you did, Naruto!" she spoke encouragingly to the blond boy, "I was expecting you to!" Naruto was Sakura's closest friends. Although he was a real guy sometimes (__**A/N: We all know what that means!**__), Sakura had always been very fond of him. Including another boy that Sakura had known since her elementary school days…._

_ "Sakura."_

_ Speak of the devil. Sakura turned around, finding the young man she was just thinking of right behind her. "Hello, Sasuke-kun," Sakura replied to the young man's calling before gazing at him. Although Sakura had seen him a countless number of times, she couldn't help but look at him again in detail. Sasuke had always had a handsome face. It was so easy to look at, the strong chin, the high cheekbones. But what had always interested the pink-haired girl was his hair, raven-dark and rebelliously spiked, the shade of black matching that of his onyx eyes. "Yes, Sasuke-kun? What is it?" she questioned him after Sasuke had called her._

_ Before the raven-haired man could speak, Naruto interrupted him. "Let's go to a bar, Sakura!" he cried, grinning wildly. In Konoha, after graduation from the Konoha High School, a person was already of drinking age. It wasn't exactly uncommon for everyone who had graduated to head over to a bar for their first drinks. _

_ Sakura, feeling that there wasn't any trouble that would be happening in the future (boy, was she wrong later on), nodded in consent, letting the blond drag her and Sasuke along to whatever bar Naruto deemed good._

_Later on, Sakura was going to regret having ever said yes to going to a bar. _

_(End flashback)_

**-xxx-**

Sakura chuckled as she remembered all the events that happened that night when the three of them had gotten stone drunk: they had T.P-ed all of the houses of the teachers that they hated in their high school days, driving around and singing about how much fun they were having, singing _The Great Escape_. Well, the ones who were singing were just her and Naruto. Sakura laughed when she remembered that Sasuke was the one who fell asleep in the car, absolutely knocked out from the alcohol he had consumed. She remembered how much trouble that the three of them had gotten into when their teachers had found out from their neighbors about the toilet paper and the eggs. Sakura shook her head. "Wow…we were such kids back then…" she thought with a sad smile. '_Sasuke-kun doesn't even talk to me anymore….'_

The whole incident from graduation made Sasuke furious at both Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke hadn't spoken a single word to them after that. He had gone to a college in God-knows-where, studying Heaven-knows-what. Naruto and Sakura were the only ones of the trio that had actually kept in touch with each other. Neither one of them had known where the raven-haired man had disappeared to.

"What I would do to actually see Sasuke-kun again…" Sakura murmured sadly as she slowly walked toward the tall, looming buildings that stood in the near distance. "I hope he's doing okay."

"Sakura!" shouted a high-pitched voice.

Sakura, because of the ear-buds in her ear and the blasting music, didn't turn around to the voice that was shouting at her. It wasn't until she had walked a few feet down the university roads toward her college for her morning classes when she had realized there was someone calling her.

Because something hit her square in the back of the head.

Sakura twitched in annoyance. She ripped off her head phones and snapped her head around to look over her shoulder at the person who had dared to chuck something at her head. "What the hell do you— "

The rosette didn't get to finish her sentence however. A bright blonde blur attacked her, sending her off balance for a moment or two, causing her to drop half of her books in her arms. Then she laughed. "Damn it, Ino, what the hell do you want?" Sakura laughed as she found out her assailant's identity.

Ino smiled at her while giving her a crushing hug only a best friend could deliver before releasing her. "I just wanted your attention, forehead!" Ino giggled.

Sakura stifled a groan of exasperation as she began picking up her fallen books. "Well, you've got it, Pig. Now, what the hell do you want?"

"Well," Ino began, "I just heard that the hottie of all hotties has just arrived at our campus!" She squealed girlishly. "Oh, my God, Forehead, you have to see him! He is just the _sexiest_ thing ever!" Ino fanned herself melodramatically for emphasis on her swooning.

Sakura snorted. "Well, the sooner that you help me with my books, the faster I can get to know who the hell you're talking about." She reached for her iPod in the midst of her scattered books.

Instead of helping Sakura like a terrific best friend would, Ino, noticing Sakura's attempt to reach for her iPod, reached it first, plucking it from Sakura's grasp despite her protests. Ino sighed. "You know, Forehead, I swear to God, you pay too much attention to this damn iPod and your fuckin' studies more than you do on your social life. And, more importantly, _**me**_."

Sakura rolled her eyes at her friend's crude comment. "Ino, I study because I want to actually _**do**_ something with my life."

Ino stuck her tongue out at her. "Hmph! At least I know that I'm gettin' a guy," her best friend teased before she dashed away to find another victim.

Sakura sighed and shook her head, adjusting her knapsack and the gigantic books that she carried in her arms. As she placed the ear buds back where they belonged (in other words, in her EARS), Sakura thought about Ino's few words that she had given her. _I swear to God, you pay too much attention to this damn iPod and your fuckin' studies more than you do on your social life…at least I know that I'm gettin' a guy!_ Sakura huffed. That was so not true! She could get a guy just like Ino could! She totally had a fair chance of getting one. '_But… I don't really want anyone right now…_' It was semi-true. Sakura didn't really feel anything for anyone anymore. Anyone except a certain tall, dark-haired man by the name of…

"SASUKE!" squealed probably thousands of girls.

Sakura twitched. "They're making fun of me. He's gone…there's not a single trace of him here! Zip! Zilch! Nada!"

But, sadly, Sakura couldn't exactly convince herself of that when she was staring the great Sasuke himself in the face. It all happened very quickly. She had bumped right into him, books flying everywhere, Sakura's knapsack flying off of her shoulder off into the wild sea of the ridiculously large group of fangirls. She cursed, just about to tell whoever this prick was who liked standing in front of people who were deep in their thoughts….but stopped when she saw who exactly it was who stood in front of her, smirking down at her in all his glory.

Sasuke Uchiha. The genius of Konoha. Profile: twenty-four years of age, five feet ten, and still as gorgeous as he ever was. His still rebelliously spiked hair stood up madly with only a few grips of hair hanging by the sides of his face, framing it _just_ right. His onyx orbs stared back at the emerald eyes that belonged to the petite, pink-haired girl, seemingly staring her down.

Sakura's heart thumped in her chest. '_Does he still remember me…?_'

"Hn. Watch where you're going, pinky."

The hope in her heart deflated. '_Guess not…'_ Outloud, the rosette faked a grin and replied, "Oh, sorry. I'll try to be more careful next time." She bent to pick up her fallen textbooks and her knapsack as quickly as possible. Her hands trembled. She stood back up, everything gathered. "Sorry, again!" Sakura giggled. And so, with tears in her eyes and a fake smile on her face, Sakura rushed on to her morning medical classes, not knowing that she had accidentally forgotten her most prized possession.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke watched as the girl dashed away, apparently late for her next class. "Hn," he scoffed to himself as he concentrated on ignoring the scary fangirls that always seemed to be everywhere. Walking away, Sasuke thought back to the pink-haired girl.

'_So, Sakura goes here, huh?' _he pondered as he walked in the same direction the girl had taken. Smirk. '_What a coincidence. I wonder if—" Crunch._ Sasuke felt something lumpy underneath his foot. "Tch. Annoying. What the hell is it now?" He bent to pick it up. It was a (now) scratched classic iPod with pink ear-buds. Sasuke put the ear-buds up to his ear to hear what song was playing. Smirk. _The Great Escape _by BoysLikeGirls. '_That brings back a few memories…'_ Sasuke thought wickedly of his graduation night with his two former friends before holding the iPod correctly and running his thumb along the iPod's touch pad to see who-in-the-world own this freakin' iPod…only to be startled practically to death. '_This is…'_

At the top of the screen in small, dark letters read:

_**iSakura's iPod**_

Although it wasn't the most creative name for an iPod, it still said enough for Sasuke to know whose iPod it was. '_This is Sakura's iPod…with all her songs…and probably all of her photos and videos in it, too…_' Sakura's iPod. Possibly loaded with photos and videos of the past. Before he knew it, Sasuke pocketed the iPod, readjusted his backpack, and walked in the direction of his morning classes.

**-xxx-**

**A/N:** I know this seems a little weird, but this is going to be a story that's going to have songs in it and purely fan-made stuff…Hey! ! Duh. Anyways, I want to know what _you_ guys think. Should I continue? Or, maybe not…? Review, please! Imagine me playing you a song and my song is beautifully lyric-ed as:

_**Reviews! Reviews! Reviews!**_

_**Please?**_


	2. iSuck at Life

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Chapter 2**

**iSuck At Life**

_Tap, tap, tap, tap_.

_Huff, huff…_

Sakura dashed down the hallways of her medical college, monster textbooks still in her arms. '_Omigod, omigod, PLEASE tell me that I'm not—"_

She burst through the doors of her class and immediately found a seat while the professor had her back turned to the class as she was writing a few biochemistry formulas on the board. Just as she sat down and was about to let out a silent sigh of relief, her professor, still having her back to the class, calmly stated, "Late, Haruno."

Sakura sighed before slumping in her seat. '_Of course…_' she thought as she vaguely heard her fellow classmates snicker at her misfortune.

"Um, h-hello, S-Sakura-san…" sounded a timid voice.

Sakura turned around in her seat to see who behind her actually knew her. She smiled in recognition. "Hi, Hinata-chan! I didn't know you were in this class. I never knew you had wanted to major in biochemistry."

"W-w-well, y-yes, of course, Sakura-san. I-It's been my interest s-since high school."

Sakura grinned. Even though Hinata was the most timid creature on the planet, she was always an interesting person to talk to. Well, in Sakura's book she was. Maybe it was because Sakura was just nice… Oh, well. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Hinata (according to Sakura) was an extremely awesome person.

"Hey, Hinata-chan, after class, do you want to—"

"SAKURA!"

Sakura winced as she heard the professor's shrill voice connect with her poor eardrums. "Er, yes, Professor Tsunade?"

"Be quiet and listen to my lecture if you would like to learn, but if not, refrain from disturbing other people!" And with that, the blonde-haired professor continued her lecture on how different substances, if mixed together correctly, could create a nice stomach reliever and _blah, blah, blah…_

Although Sakura knew that Konoha University (consisting of over twenty colleges) was hard to get into and was rumored to have scary mental exercises, it seemed that the courses of the medical college were practically the same as those of the advance placement classes in high school, maybe even—dare she say it—_easier_.

But that was Sakura for you. She was a genius of her age, graduating from Konoha High as Valedictorian and voted by practically everyone in school as _Most Likely to Succeed_ and, by the faculty staff, _Most Well-Rounded Student_.

It was a made-up award, but the school staff had loved her so much the four years they had her, they decided to make one up just for her (which got her a lot of dirty looks, but that was besides that point and definitely another story that Sakura would have to tell).

And it was true, too. Sakura had gotten herself involved in so many extracurricular activities that she could hardly count them, even now. There was badminton, National Honors Society, French Club, Mathematics League, Academic League….the list kept going on from there. And Sakura had to thank it all to her iPod.

Her iPod was there for her, keeping the stress away when finals came around in high school, throwing her into an alternate reality when she needed to escape from the real world. The iPod was basically her best friend.

'_It's so sad if you think about it.' _The rosette nearly keeled over laughing when she thought about how loser-like it was, having an iPod for a best friend. Well, it was semi-true. The iPod was there for her, for good and bad times, but so were her other friends. There was Naruto, Ino…and there was Sasuke.

The thought of the dear raven-haired boy—correction: _MAN_—made Sakura's lips give way to a sad smile. '_We've known each other for so long…and he just throws it away like that…_'

'_He just… throws it away…_' Sakura's brow furrowed in anger. She slammed her fist into her desk. "AARGHH!"

"DAMMIT, HARUNO!" cursed a familiar shrill.

Sakura looked up from her revelry…and felt her face flush a deep, unattractive red. She was still in biochemistry class. In the morning. When everyone was feeling their least best. Unfortunately for Sakura, this crappy feeling included her professor, who was clearly not happy about Sakura's random outburst.

Professor Tsunade had snapped her dry-erase marker in half, spilling the ink all over her hands. She took a deep breath and let out an irritated exhalation. Then, she turned her death glare to the pink-haired genius that couldn't keep her mouth shut during a lecture. "Listen, Haruno," the professor hissed, "if you already know this material, then that's awesome. However, there are some people who _don't_. Therefore, I _strongly_"—her eye twitched involuntarily—"advise you to step out of the class and have a nice time in the library or something. You don't have to come to lectures if you already know the material." After the calm/irate professor finished her diplomatic tirade, she excused herself from the room, apparently going to wash off the ink that stained her hand from the broken dry-erase marker, and to, probably, grab a new one to replace it.

Sakura sighed. '_First day of medical school and I've already gotten on the professor's bad side…'_

Hinata, still sitting behind the distressed rosette, patted her gently and apologetically before saying, "It's not your fault, Sakura-san. Everything s-sort of went downhill b-because of what I had s-started…" The black-haired beauty stared back anxiously at the pink-haired woman, hoping for an apology acceptance.

"It's not really your fault either, Hinata-chan," Sakura sighed tiredly before flashing Hinata an embarrassed grin. "I was just excited that there was someone in here that I actually knew."

"O-oh. Okay, then…." Hinata stuttered in relief.

Sakura laughed half-heartedly. "At least she didn't give me any psychological trauma, ne?"

Professor Tsunade was the scariest one on campus. Hands down. No one was as strict, as scary, and homicidal-sounding as she was. The typical professor would give you a pink slip if you had joked around in their college course class. Tsunade was a different matter; she would give you the biggest fright and psychological trauma you would have ever experienced. And she did it in the most diplomatic way possible. No one ever knew how she did it, one moment she's saying something that's seemingly really polite. Then, those that actually _know_ what she's saying end up with the worst psychological trauma ever known to man.

A young man of the age of twenty-five had actually been found sucking his thumb in a fetal position, scrunched in a corner coming out of Tsunade's class.

Sakura shuddered at the thought.

"Sakura-san?" Hinata inquired. "Are you okay?"

Responding with a slight nod (any more sudden movements and then her breakfast would have come back up), Sakura managed to break out a small grin before saying, "Yeah. Don't worry about it, Hinata-chan." She shuddered a bit at the thought of a thumb-sucking twenty-five-year-old curled into a fetal position. "I just need to relax a bit with some music…."

Grabbing her knapsack, Sakura began rummaging through her bag, trying to find her precious iPod. Puzzled, she felt around for it. '_Huh, that's funny,' _she thought. '_I could have sworn I had it earlier_…' She dumped out her knapsack's contents, fumbling wildly through her notebooks and papers and pencils. "Where in the world could it be?" she cried hysterically.

Oh God. It was the end of the world! The world was ending! There was no iPod, there was no music, and in a few minutes, the trauma artist of a professor was coming back to smite her! So, what the hell did Sakura do?

The only logical thing a girl with a homicidal teacher would do: she panicked.

"Omigod, omigod, omigod!" Sakura hyperventilated, scrabbling into her notebooks and papers endlessly. "_Where the hell did I fucking put my freakin' iPod?"_ Then, ignoring the stares of her fellow peers, Sakura straightened in her seat. "I…lost. It…." Her heart sank. The only thing in the world that made her calm, the only thing in the world that had helped her succeed through all of the times she spent in school, was missing. _Missing_.

"Where was the last place you put it, Sakura-chan?" Hinata gently inquired, surprisingly without stuttering.

Sakura replied frantically, "Well, I had it this morning and I was out of the car and I bumped into Sasuke and I had to—" Stop. Right. There.

"Omigod…" Sakura breathed.

Hinata looked at her expectantly.

"I bumped into Sasuke."

"So…?"

"This means that I probably left it where I had bumped into Sasuke…" Sakura's throat went dry.

Hinata frowned. "But, by now, it's probably _anywhere_." That was true. People liked to steal. Especially things like a classic, black iPod with pink, seductive headphones.

Sakura gulped down some of her water. "Yeah, but then, it wouldn't hurt to look there…"

Silence filled the air and weighed it down heavily.

"You think that the professor won't mind if we—" Hinata began before Sakura cut her off.

"Naw."

Gathering their stuff, Hinata and Sakura burst out of the room and headed back to the scene of the crime where the beloved iPod went missing.

"It better be there," Sakura hoped. But, seeing how hope was always rejecting her, the chances that the iPod was still there were slim to none.

**-xxx-**

The halls were empty when Sasuke had even started walking down the hallways towards his first morning class. Math 150. Yum.

As he walked nonchalantly through the doors, high-pitched squeals echoed from the huge number of girls that were apparently signed up just for him.

"Omigod, it's Sasuke-kun!"

"Hi, Sasuke-kun! Oh, did you see how he _ignored_ me?" (squeal)

"Sasuke-kun! Sit next to me!"

"(squeal)! Sasuke-kun, can I have your autograph?"

And on and on the squealing went, fangirls ubiquitous. In the end, Sasuke had chosen a seat next to his blond-haired friend and the brown-haired genius.

The professor had not arrived yet (Dammit…), so the fangirls had time to be able to admire the Uchiha's perfect face and squeal over who got noticed more by him.

It was a hysterical game.

And it was even more hysterical being a person who watched them. Spectators were always fun to be.

Naruto grinned at Sasuke. "Hey, Sasuke-teme! Long time no see, ne?"

"Hn."

"DAMMIT, TEME! AT LEAST SAY HELLO TO YOUR AWESOME SUPERIOR!"

"Shut up, dobe."

Naruto puffed up in anger and annoyance at the raven-haired man's arrogance and pompous attitude and promptly turned away, pouting, "I wish that Sakura were here! She'd _so_ take my side!"

Sasuke stiffened at the mentioning of Sakura, remembering their first meeting after four long years just a few moments ago. He remembered how angry he had felt when he saw her here, remembering graduation night (it was fun, but Sasuke would never admit that) and how much trouble he had gotten in. So, just to smite her, Sasuke had pretended that she was someone he had never known. But people who never knew other people didn't take other people's things. Speaking of which…. Sasuke still had Sakura's iPod in his pocket. And he still wasn't too sure _why_.

"Ne, speaking of Sakura, teme, have you seen her yet? She hasn't seen you in years! God, you should have seen how much she cried over you and how she talked about seein' you again and—"

Sasuke covered the blond's mouth, muffling the next words that should have come out of Naruto's mouth. "Yeah. I've seen her."

The Uchiha felt Naruto grin against his palm before saying a hear-able, "She really missed you, ya know…."

Again, the raven-haired man stiffened. "….I know…"

Shikamaru, the genius with the pineapple-shaped, brown hair, finally spoke up after a long silence. "Hey, Sasuke, better watch out. One of your fangirls is approaching." He pointed to a red-haired girl sporting black glasses heading toward them.

Sasuke cringed. '_Oh, God…here she comes…three…two…one…'_

"Hello there, Sasuke-kun!" the red-haired girl chirped as she adjusted her glasses. "Did you miss me?"

Sasuke gave a soft snort. "Hn." Translation for 'hardly.'

However, the girl didn't exactly know Sasuke's language. "Great! I knew you did!" she cried happily as she smooshed her boobs up in his face.

The young man twitched in irritation. He absolutely _hated_ close contact with people he disliked. No, scratch that. With people he _hated_ with a passion. Disliked seemed a little too soft.

Sasuke stared at the other two boys in desperation for help, only to be met by a smirk from Naruto (who knew he had it in him?) and a small, wry grin from Shikamaru who was leaning back to catch a snooze.

Twitch. Oh, how the Uchiha hated his fangirls. And his friends. He looked up to the ceiling and closed his eyes, wishing for a miracle to happen. '_Can a miracle _please_ come? _Now?_'_

And so, his prayers were answered. The teacher came swaggering in with a new orange book (with a half-naked lady with a whip chasing a half-naked man on the front cover) in his hand, his face covered up with a mask except for his right eye, his gray hair sticking awkwardly to the side. Professor Kakashi. The gray-haired man stood in front of the class and smiled with embarrassment. "Sorry I'm late. I was driving on my way to school, and I had to help an old lady cross the street. And traffic! Oh, boy…"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He had been here four years of his college life. And everyone who went to Konoha University, no matter which college they went to in the university, knew about Professor Kakashi Hatake. He was always late to classes, always making the weirdest excuses, and always—ALWAYS—carrying one of his orange porn books to class to read.

"Well!" the masked professor said with sarcastic enthusiasm, "let's get down to business shall we?" And with that, Professor Kakashi began handing out worksheets for his students to practice.

Sasuke stared at the paper, analyzing the contents before nodding in satisfaction. '_Just review…nothing to worry about._' Smirk. _'This'll be easy_.' Quickly, the raven-haired man went to work, plugging things into formulas and solving derivatives. Soon, he was finished, sure that he had all of the answers correct.

Content with his handiwork, Sasuke gazed over at his two other friends to see how they progressed.

Naruto was staring blankly at the paper, having only done one problem. Sasuke smirked and tapped his pencil on Naruto's paper. Having caught the blond boy's attention, Sasuke voiced, "That one's wrong, dobe."

"SHUT UP, SASUKE-TEME!"

Smirk. "Hn."

Sasuke looked over to Shikamaru, still sleeping dreamily. Surprisingly, Shikamaru had completed his worksheet already. And all the answers were correct.

The Uchiha sighed. '_I didn't expect it to be that easy…_' he thought before glancing at the clock that read _1:47_. He scowled, muttering about how the stupid professor couldn't even keep his clock on time. '_So what the hell am I s'posed to do now…?'_

"…."

(DING!)

'_The iPod…'_

Sasuke brought out the pink-haired girl's iPod, careful to hide it from any nosy fangirls that would find him with the pink headphones. He looked around suspiciously; then, finding the fangirls still cracking at the math problems, Sasuke slipped on the ear buds and tapped the iPod's touch pad.

At first, the young onyx-eyed man had expected the iPod to not have any music playing. He had paused the first song…right?

Wrong.

Sasuke had totally forgotten about pausing _The Great Escape_. Now, the song that was currently playing (because the iPod was put on shuffle, apparently) was a familiar country song that was sung by a familiar voice.

Taylor Swift's _Love Story_. Well, not yet anyway, but by the intro, the Uchiha could tell that this was _Love Story_.

Sasuke scowled at the iPod and at the unmanly fact that he had actually _recognized_ this song.

"Hn," he muttered, scrolling through the iPod's list of songs to try and find a good song. Just before he could press on a different song, the first verse began to play. Sasuke's thumb froze in place.

_**We were both young when I first saw you**_

_**I closed my eyes and the flashback starts**_

_**I'm standing there**_

_**On a balcony in summer air…**_

Sasuke smirked. _'We _were_ both young when we saw each other_…' Wait. Hold it. RED LIGHT! This was definitely _not_ **the** Sasuke Uchiha. **The** Sasuke Uchiha did _not_ reminisce. And he shouldn't like it. But, in truth, Sasuke really did like remembering things from the past.

It was like a game to him. A game that he wanted to play over and over again until he memorized it.

And that was what he was trying to do. Memorize his memories by reviewing them over and over again.

This song brought back memories. Lots of memories. From when he had met Sakura under that cherry blossom tree to the _Romeo and Juliet_ play in middle school.

'_Hm. So I met her back then…'_

(_Flashback_)

_It was a warm summer day. Sasuke had only been five years old at the time and he already had his share of fangirls. _

_ "SASUKE-KUN! COME BACK!"_

_ Little Sasuke ran through the cherry blossom woods, huffing and puffing. '_If I could just lose them for a moment or two…'_ The mini raven-haired boy dashed toward a large crowd near Ichiraku's. _'I'll lose them there!' _He sprinted through the throng of people, nimbly heading out of the way of others and quickly achieving his goal of losing his fangirls. _

_ He smirked when he heard the loud disappointed squeals of the fangirls that he successfully managed to leave behind. "Now I can finally go to my secret hideout without those scary girls bothering me!"_ _Little Sasuke managed to huff between heavy gulps of air. _

_ As he walked towards the cherry-blossom woods in the vicinity of his neighborhood, the small raven-haired boy muttered, _"I wonder if big brother has problems with girls, too…" _before walking into a meadow of beautiful sakura blossom trees. _

_ Just as little Sasuke was about to sit under a tree and relax in the shade, he heard giggling and tensed. _'Are those girls here again?' _he thought before he cautiously moved toward the source of the giggling to be sure. _

_ Sure enough, Sasuke found that there were girls alright…but they weren't giggling because they were chasing him. They were giggling because they were making fun of a small pink-haired girl who sat near the base of a tree, crying her eyes out._

_ "Please," Sasuke heard the little pink-haired girl say softly, "stop making fun of me….You're hurting my feelings. You're being mean!"_

_ A five-year-old girl with red hair and glasses laughed evilly. She seemed to be the one in charge of the group that was picking on the poor rosette. "Why should we do that…" the redhead asked sinisterly before poking the tiny rosette's forehead. "…Billboard Brow?" _

_ The four girls that surrounded her tittered in agreement, poking the poor pink-haired girl's forehead. _

_ Sasuke had seen enough. "The girl told you guys to stop." By now, the little raven-haired boy had stepped out of the shadows of the cherry blossom trees, onyx eyes flashing dangerously. _

_ All four of the girls, once laughing at a girl's misfortune, stepped away, heeding the little boy's command. "S-Sorry, Sasuke-kun… we didn't—"_

_"You did know, and you wanted to hurt her," Sasuke murmured dangerously, holding on to the tiny rosette's hand. The boy looked at them again, anger clear in his eyes. "Go. Now." _

_ Muttering angrily before they stomped away, the four girls, including the redhead with glasses, left the two alone. _

_ Sasuke turned to the pink-haired girl that was still crying as he held her hand. "Are you okay?"_

_ The rosette looked at him. "N-No. They h-hurt my feelings…" She hiccupped before drying her tears with the hand that wasn't holding his. _

_ "Well, I chased them away for you," Sasuke murmured. He looked at the pink-haired girl who stared back up at him with deep, soulful green orbs. Sasuke was curious about her. "What's your name?"_

_ She gave him a shy smile. "Haruno Sakura." She stood up. "And yours?"_

_ "Uchiha Sasuke."_

_(End Flashback)_

Sasuke managed to stifle a chuckle when he thought about his meeting with her. It was the sweetest thing. If he had ever thought about helping her now while he was still made at her (The Uchiha can hold a grudge…), it would never happen.

Sasuke sighed, still listening reluctantly to _Love Story_. '_Man, if anyone had ever caught me listening to this…'_ He stifled another sigh before returning his thoughts to his memory bank.

_Love Story_ was basically a retelling of Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_. Sasuke smirked. '_She probably has a video of the play on her iPod_,' Sasuke thought as he ran through the iPod's videos. Sure enough, it was there.

Sasuke flashed his trademark smirk again. "Hn…" He still remembered everyone's parts in the play. He himself had been Romeo (he could still hear the fangirls squealing), Naruto had been Mercutio, the jokester of a best friend, Neji was Benvolio, Kiba was Tybalt…and Sakura was Juliet.

The raven-haired man remembered when the famous balcony scene was set for the stage. He had stated his lines perfectly, acting everything out on cue as he was supposed to. '_Speaking of which…_'

The Uchiha skipped the first act of the play to go to the balcony scene where Romeo and Juliet declared their love for each other, running his thumb across the touch pad. Readjusting the pink earbuds (why did they have to be pink?), Sasuke squared his shoulders and pressed play.

Shakespearean language spilled into his ears, his own voice the director.

_**But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?**_

'_**Tis the east and Juliet is the sun.**_

Sasuke twitched as he heard the words come out of his seventh-grade mouth, then returned his eyes to the iPod's screen where the whole act played out. His jet black eyes watched the scene play out, from Romeo's declaration of love, to Juliet's, to the added kiss at the end of the scene at the top of the balcony that Sasuke had to climb.

He paused it at the moment of the kiss, ready to put the iPod back in his pocket…

Before a girlish hand reached out to stop him.

Sasuke looked up to find Karin, adjusting her glasses, standing at his side and intensely gazing at the kiss that Sasuke had shared with Sakura on their middle school stage.

"That's Pinky, right?" Karin murmured quietly.

"…."

"Right, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn."

Karin whined. "Sasuke-kun!"

"No."

"No?"

"It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

This time it was Karin's turn to stay quiet. "…Okay then. Thanks for letting me see it, Sasuke-kun!" Karin chirped before turning around and heading back to her pack of Sasuke worshippers.

Beside him, Naruto shuddered. "Jeez, Sasuke, I'm glad I'm not you. I wouldn't wanna have those creepy girls drooling over me all the time." The blond looked Sasuke over. "They have such bad taste…"

Sasuke replied with a sound 'thump' to Naruto's head before pocketing Sakura's iPod.

**-xxx-**

Karin sat down at her table of Sasuke admirers.

Lowering her voice, she whispered, "Sasuke-kun's got a girl in mind…"

The fangirls immediately piped up, cheerfully making exclamations and excited questions like:

"Omigod, is it me? Is it?"

"(sigh) He's finally recognized my beauty and wants to take me on a date!"

"(squeal) Hi, Sasuke-kun! See, he's ignoring me again. But I know his secret!"

Karin fisted the table. "SHUT UP, MORONS!"

The fangirls quieted.

"That's better," Karin cooed before continuing with her interrupted speech. "As I was saying. He's got a girl in mind, someone that he's know in the past. Pinky, AKA: Haruno Sakura." The redhead hissed the name out hatefully before continuing once again.

"We've got to make sure that this _whore_bag does get to our Sasuke-kun. Or else it's all over for us."

The fangirls nodded, voicing mutters of agreements.

Karin raised up a hand to silence them. As the roar died down, the redhead slowly gave a feral, cat-like grin. "So…I've got a fool-proof plan. To get rid of her. Once and for all."

Gathering her minions in close, the red-headed girl with glimmering glasses began their plot against the unknowing rosette.

**A/N: ** WH00T WH00T! Finally done! 12 pages down on Microsoft word. (whew). Anyway, I'm happy for the few review that I got. I'd appreciate more please! I know how many of you out there have already story alerted it and all but haven't reviewed it! :D Come on, you guys! Reviewing helps me write!

Anyway, I've made it so that the other peoples are plotting and scheming and all. You'll see how the story unfolds next chapter. Forecast: Next meeting between Sasuke and Sakura! :D

Imagine me playing you a song with a cup at my feet saying "Reviews."


	3. iSave Your Life

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Chapter 3**

**iSave Your Life**

**-xxx-**

"It's not here, Hinata! It's not here!"

For the rest of the biochemistry period, Sakura and Hinata had spent their entire time…searching for Sakura's poor, lost iPod. So far, progress wasn't moving. And Sakura, like a mother who had just lost a child, didn't want to believe it.

"It can't just disappear!" The rosette cried desparately, overturning rocks and leaves. "It's not like it could grow legs and run away!" That was when she sat up straight. "Unless…"

"U-Unless what, Sakura-san?" Hinata asked curiously.

"Unless I've been a bad mommy and my iPod's running away!" Sakura shouted, clearly showing that already in the first day that she had spent with her hot-headed, blond-haired professor, psychological trauma was getting to her head.

And Hinata, being ever so observant, noticed. "Eh, S-Sakura-san… I'm pretty s-sure that iPod's d-don't have legs…and you wouldn't b-be a b-b-bad mommy… You're a v-very responsible person."

Sakura smiled at her new friend. Hinata always knew what to say, she always saw the better part of people and never blamed them for anything. But that was what also _worried_ Sakura. Hinata cared so much for others that she didn't even think about herself. It was sad and frightening, but that's what you get when you have a good trait…right?

"It has to be here somewhere!"

So far, Sakura had overturned trashcans, tables, and even other people that were late to their morning classes in a pure, full-hearted effort to find her precious baby of an iPod. The poor pink-haired girl kneeled on both knees and raised both of her hands dramatically in the air. "Baby, come back! You can blame it all on me!"

Hinata sweatdropped. '_Oh, boy…Tsunade-sensei's already gotten to her…'_

Sakura was thinking the same thing. Sighing in reluctant acceptance, the pretty rosette stood up, jogging over to the table that held her knapsack and giant, bone-crushing textbooks. Oh, why did the college have to send out such large books? Did they want their students to break their limbs?

_ 'Well, it's good exercise…'_ thought the pink-haired medical student, readjusting the gigantic textbooks she carried in her arms to find a more comfortable position. She turned to her pearly-eyed friend and smiled awkwardly, a sweatdrop visible on her face. "Eh, sorry, Hinata-chan… I'm so sorry for wasting your time. And I know that you wanted to become a pharmacist. I shouldn't have interrupted you in the middle of biochem class. Heh-heh. But thank you for helping me try and find my iPod. Even if I can't find it right now." Nervous laughter.

The black (almost blue) haired girl simply smiled amiably and then shyly replied, "D-Don't worry, about it, S-Sakura-san. I-I really enjoyed helping you try to find your iPod." She giggled. "I-It's so funny w-watching you." Hinata bowed politely at the pink-haired student before straightening up and grabbing her messenger bag off of a nearby table. "Good luck, S-Sakura-san. I hope you f-find it somewhere…." And with that, the pearly-eyed girl dashed off to wherever she was heading.

"Probably going to find someone with biochem notes…" Sakura muttered before adjusting her knapsack on her shoulder and pulling out her phone to check the time.

_10:20_, read the time. Sakura sighed. There was only ten minutes left of the biochem class…and Sakura was sure as hell in not wanting to go back to the devil professor's room.

The rosette laughed at her behavior in front of Hinata and shook her head. "Wow… she must have thought that I was so weird," she murmured before resuming her speech to herself. "I should be heading over campus to psychology now."

It was only logical. Psychology was all the way across campus. And Sakura was too lazy to find her damn car for such a short drive over. It would be wasting gas and polluting the air, and it wasn't exactly too much work to walk across campus. Besides, it would be great exercise for her. Especially with the monster books eating away at her arm muscles. Yum.

Sighing and readjusting her textbooks—what? You can't blame her. Those books are _heavy_—Sakura began her trek across campus grounds to her psych class, running her psych notes through her head. _'So let's see… we're supposed to be learning about classical conditioning. Classical conditioning was thought by Pavlov…'_ She ran all her memorized notes through her mind, irresponsibly not watching the road.

And up the road ahead were plotting, conniving, hateful bitches…waiting to strike.

And Sakura didn't know a thing about it.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke had gotten out of his math class early. He was already done with his worksheet, and, seeing how Kakashi-sensei was still drooling over his new edition of _Icha Icha Paradise_ (trust him, Sasuke knew what kind of smut that his teacher was reading…not that he read it, of course…), Sasuke decided to leave before his fangirls could eat him alive.

He would've asked Naruto and Shikamaru to join him over at the lunch area, but Shikamaru was too busy sleeping on his lazy ass and Naruto (the dobe) was still staring blankly at the problems.

Sasuke would have helped the poor blond boy with his math, but then, it would have taken him more than the whole period to have explained the use of derivatives and intergrals to him. And Sasuke wanted to get the hell out of the class that was crawling with scary, scary fangirls.

So he left, his backpack slung over his right shoulder and psych text book in hand. He was too lazy to fetch his car to drive over to where his psychology class was. It was all the way across campus, but the Uchiha didn't seem to mind. He liked walking. It cleared his mind and let him actually think while he walked.

'_Hopefully the lesson in psych isn't going to be boring like math is…'_ Smirk. Psychology. Sasuke had always thought that psychology was a fun topic to do. Which was why he chose to major in both math (because it was painfully easy) and in psychology (because it was extremely fun).

Well, it'd be fun for him, that was.

Sasuke thought of all the things he could do to make himself seem repulsive to the fangirls. '_Then I'd be fangirl-free the rest of my life._' And oh, what he could do with a fangirl-free life. He could do everything and not live up to the expectation of the fangirls and be the dreamiest guy on planet Earth. He could probably take cooking class and actually make himself some food besides chomping on tomatoes all day long as a source of nutrition. Not that tomatoes weren't good. It was just…he wanted a bit of variety.

And the Uchiha would _finally_ be able to have a girl in his life without the butting in of jealous, raging fangirls that would most likely try and murder whoever in the fucking world he was going out with.

Smirk. '_If they would try to murder the person I go out with, I wonder how they'll react if I actually get _married_ someday…_' The thought wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was something to think about while he walked through the lush mini-hills of Konoha University's campus.

"Speaking of which…" Sasuke muttered under his breath, "I wonder…" He let his sentence trail off, letting it be finished with an action of taking out a certain pink-haired girl's iPod.

Wrapping the ridiculously long pink ear-buds around his neck, Sasuke looked back at the black, classic iPod, running his thumb along the iPod's touch pad to resume where he left off of the Romeo and Juliet play that he and Sakura had both done in the seventh grade.

The raven-haired man scowled, remembering what had happened after the play was over and everyone was supposed to enjoy themselves at a Shakespearean banquet party. It was supposed to be based off of Romeo and Juliet's Act One, Scene Five where the two had first met in the middle of the masquerade ball that Juliet's father had set up.

It was a pleasant memory to start with…but with fangirls in the equation it became ugly. Very ugly.

_(Flashback)_

_ It was after the play, after Sasuke had played Romeo's death and received another kiss from Juliet before she had 'killed' herself. The whole play was pretty fun to play out. Not that Sasuke would admit it. Ever. It was after the play that Sasuke had set out to find Sakura in the midst of the crowd. _

_ The twelve-year-old raven-haired boy sighed to himself as his feet still went on their own tangent, leading him to what he was trying to find. Correction: WHO he was trying to find. 'This is so cliché…' he thought to himself. _

_ Not only that, but the same thing had happened in Romeo and Juliet. Sort of. What had really happened was that Romeo had spotted Juliet on the dance floor and had immediately fallen for her, head over heels in love. Juliet had seen him also while she was dancing with her fiancé that her father had chosen for her, and, being a naïve little girl, fell in love, too._

_ In the middle of the dance floor, Romeo and Juliet were dancing. And then kissing. Then finding out who the other was. _

_ Sasuke had actually thought it was really pathetic. You don't exactly kiss someone you barely know _just_ because they're good looking. 'Which is something that everyone wants to do these days…' the raven-haired boy thought as he went through the crowd, searching for a trace of pink hair._

_ That was the first difference. The first difference was that Sasuke was still _looking _for the pink-haired girl he had played his part with. _

_ The second difference was that he was _not_ madly in love with Sakura_. _He cared about her, that was true, since the day that he had first met her in the cherry blossom forests near his house, where he found her crying her eyes out. But nothing more than that seemed to spark. Until that kiss during the balcony scene onstage. _

_ That kiss sparked something in Sasuke. Something that had been hidden within him since he had actually begun to notice the girl. Were they…feelings? The young boy nearly choked as he thought of that. No fucking way was he feeling any damn thing for Sakura. There was no way. _

_ 'But you had liked it,' smirked an evil voice inside of his head. 'You liked it and you wanted another one…' _

_ Sasuke shook his head, trying to get rid of the evil thoughts that were plaguing his twelve-year-old mind. "Where the hell is Sakura?"_

_ He turned around. And, as if out of the play that he had just performed, saw her dancing in the middle of dance floor, waltzing with Naruto, the blond haired best friend of both Sakura and Sasuke. And it seemed (to Sasuke's dismay) that they were actually enjoying themselves. _

_ The raven-haired boy watched them, forgotten punch cup in hand, as he saw the rosette laugh heartily when Naruto had spoken to her. _

_ 'What the fuck are they talking about?'_

_ Sakura caught the Uchiha staring after her. And smiled. _

_ Sasuke's twelve-year-old eye twitched. He averted his gaze, looking somewhere—anywhere where there wasn't Sakura—muttering, "Tch. Annoying." And it was true. Her smile was annoying. Her laugh that she gave to Naruto was annoying him. Even her caring attitude towards him was beginning to annoy him. _

_ The rant continuously danced through his head, a certain pink-haired girl in mind. Sasuke was so consumed in this thoughts that he didn't even notice the certain pink-haired girl that he had in his head had shown up in front of him._

_ "Sasuke-kun?"_

_ He looked up, prepared to glare at a fangirl that was about to ask him to dance…only to have his voice die in his throat when he saw pink hair. Sasuke gulped silently. "What is it, Sakura?"_

_ The young twelve-year-old rosette fidgeted, twirling a lock of her pink tresses around her index finger. While Sasuke was waiting for a reply, he took the time to admire her costume that she had worn for her part as Juliet._

_ It was a quaint sort of thing. The corset was there, widening her hips and subtracting inches away from her waist. It was worn over a forest green dress that complimented Sakura's pale skin and brought out her emerald orbs. The ruffles on the end of her dress's hand brushed lightly again the back of her hand, white against pale skin. Slowly, Sasuke's gaze made it from Sakura's costume to her face and hair._

_ And the two were just as—dare the stoic Uchiha say it—_beautiful_. Sakura's hair had been expertly braided and placed ornately on her head, a rose projecting from the large bun-like ensemble of hair. Her rosy cheeks clashed violently against her pale skin, her small nose just the right size… and her deep, shining, emerald eyes that stared back at the Uchiha himself. _

_ Before he could stop himself, the raven-haired boy blurted out, "Would you like to dance with me?" _

_ Sakura startled for a moment before smiling shyly and graciously accepting his extended hand that led her to the middle of the dance floor. For the rest of the night, they waltzed; Sakura laughed; and Sasuke had hints of a smile playing on his lips. _

_(End Flashback)_

Sasuke's scowl deepened as he remembered further what else had happened that night. The fangirls were irate with the poor rosette, ripping off her precious hair ensemble, poking her wide forehead, and verbally abusing her.

All the while Sakura cried out for mercy and forgiveness.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, ignoring the guilt of not helping her when he had found her being picked on by a familiar red-headed girl with glasses and her followers. He had seen them pick on her, yet he did nothing about it.

Even though he _did_ stand up for her when they were little five-year-olds, it was a little different when they were twelve. I mean, _come on_. Cut him some slack! Sasuke had a reputation to hold up. And if he _had_ helped her, the fangirls would have more of a reason to hurt her.

"Not that I care…" he muttered, watching the end of the Romeo and Juliet play. His onyx orbs watched carefully as he gaze upon Sakura as Juliet, plunging the knife into her heart and falling of her lover's body, dead. "But it's not like I want her dead either."

_Damn it! _It was so confusing. Sasuke didn't know how to make of his feelings towards Sakura. Besides, he was still furious at her for nearly ruining his future with the whole graduation night thing, when the three of them (Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura) had gone out past midnight for some fun, drunkly T. houses and egging the windows.

The whole incident had gone on his permanent record and followed him all the way through colleges, even while he studied abroad. And he didn't even fucking do _anything_! The last thing he remembered of that night was passing out on his ninth drink and waking up the next day in a small cell. His parents had pardoned him from getting a sentence, but the thing followed him _everywhere_.

That was the whole reason why he had decided to come back after studying abroad for four years for his bachelor's degree. No other universities would take him because of the incident. And he had wanted to major in both psychology and math. So Konoha University, with their large number of colleges, decided to retake him in and give him another chance.

He scoffed. '_Whatever… that's just a bunch of bull.'_

Finding out that walking and thinking wasn't working out for him, Sasuke turned to look at his surroundings, taking in fresh air.

The raven-haired man admired his surroundings, watching the autumn leaves fall, red, gold, and orange raining from the towering trees. He wrapped his scarf around his neck a little tighter when he felt a biting breeze come by.

Autumn was so colorful in Konoha. Which wasn't exactly a surprise to the onyx-eyed man. It wasn't named the Leaf Village for nothing. There were so many colors: red, orange, gold, brown, pink—

Sasuke whipped his head around. '_Pink?'_

Sure enough, there was pink. But this pink wasn't the color of a leaf. It was the color of the silky tresses of a certain rosette that he had on his mind.

Quickly, Sasuke dislodged the pink headphones from his ears and placed the iPod and the ear-buds into his leather jacket pocket.

'_What the hell is she doing? She's supposed to be in class…_'

Just as Sasuke was about to shout over to her (she was crossing the streets), he saw a girl bump into her, spilling the gargantuan textbooks and notebooks out in the middle of the street.

Sasuke was near enough to hear a sarcastic, "Oops. I'm sorry," from the brunette before she had run away.

'_Wait a second…' _the raven-haired man thought suspiciously, '_that girl seems familiar.'_

That's when it hit him. The brunette was from his Math 150 class…and she was a fangirl. _A fangirl_, for Chrissake!

Sasuke began to dash across the mini-hills of the university, trying to reach Sakura as quickly as possible.

Sakura was still picking up her textbooks and papers in the street.

Ominously, a large truck came speeding down the lane. Heading straight toward the unknowing pink-haired student that was kneeling in the middle of the street, picking up her notebooks painfully, painfully slow.

Sasuke picked up his pace. _'C'mon…c'mon.'_ His legs screamed bloody murder as he began to continuously push himself to run faster. The truck seemed to be speeding up, almost a good distance away to run over someone. Which, at the moment, was not a good thing.

The Uchiha reached the curb of the pedestrian walk, close enough to Sakura to get her out of the oncoming car that didn't know when to stop. '_Why the hell won't the fucking car stop?'_ Sasuke thought desperately before a shout ripped from his throat:

"_Sakura!"_

He lunged for the rosette, ignoring the startled look she had on her face before tumbling her over to the other side to safety, getting her out of the truck's path. Sasuke looked up from where he and Sakura lay, looking at the driver's seat. In the seat was a now irate redhead with suspiciously familiar glasses. The truck drove away quickly.

Sasuke stirred from the pile of leaves that the two had landed in after tumbling over cement and surprisingly hard grass to look over at the remains of Sakura's notes. They were now scattered, dirtied over and ripped to shreds. Fortunately, the pink-haired girl's knapsack and the textbooks were safe, lying on the concrete next to the stop sign that the truck should have headed.

But, now knowing who the driver was, Sasuke wasn't surprised. He sighed in exasperation before pinching at his forehead. Why were fangirls so homicidal these days?

The girl by his side stirred, pushing herself up by her hands. Her pink hair drooped in front of her face before she pushed her hair back, exposing the face that Sasuke had known since the age of five. Same green eyes, same pink hair, same pale skin. The only thing different about Sakura was that she now had defined curves…and scratches on her face due to the rough tumbling.

Not only that, but the poor rosette was trembling. She looked helplessly at the raven-haired boy beside her who stared right back at her with an emotionless expression. Sakura gulped down some air before asking, "Wha—What just…happened?"

Sasuke gazed at her a little while before replying monotonously, "Someone was driving and they didn't see you." It was a lie, of course. They _did_ see her. And they _wanted_ to hurt her. Badly.

"It didn't seem like it…" Sakura murmured before sitting up correctly in the pile of leaves. She turned to look at Sasuke. "It was Karin. Wasn't it?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

But Sakura didn't need one. She already knew. She knew how much Karin had absolutely _despised _her since they were both five. She knew how much Karin's hate had built up during the years of growing up. And she was sure as fuck that Karin was the one who had tried to run her over.

"I'm sorry…"

Sakura blinked. She had forgotten all about Sasuke. And Sasuke was the one who saved her, for crying out loud. Sakura looked at him softly. "Don't be." She smiled at him. "You saved my life."

Sasuke gave her a guy-like snort before turning away. "You don't need to thank me. I was just doing it because it would make a mess of school grounds if they'd found you."

Sakura felt an angry vein pop on her forehead. Just as she was about to make a snappy comeback at him, the pink-haired medical student spied something pink. Earbuds. Her voice died in her throat. "What do you have in your pocket, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke froze. '_Shit…'_

"What are you talking about, Sakura?" Sasuke inquired, his back still facing her.

"Do my eyes deceive me?" Sakura spoke dramatically. "Are those _pink_ head phones I see?"

Before Sasuke could stop her, Sakura had already grabbed hold of the iPod.

The pink-haired girl laughed musically. "That's funny," she said, running her index finger across the touch pad, "This iPod looks just like mine. Including the headphones…" Her sentence trailed off.

Sasuke didn't like how her voice trailed off. He swung around to look at her. And had wished he hadn't.

"This…" gaped the rosette, "this _is_ my iPod…"

And it was. Right in the middle, in large dark letters, were the words:

**iSakura's iPod**

Sakura looked up and met her gaze with the man she had known her whole life. "Sasuke-kun…"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"…why the fuck do you have my iPod?"

Guess the thank-you was going to come later. "I was holding it for you," Sasuke said smoothly. It was the half-truth. He really was holding it for her. But he was also snooping around in her music and her videos… if she knew that, he'd be really screwed.

"_Right_," Sakura said, her tone dripping with sarcasm, "and you're holding it for me because you wanted to look through my videos?"

Shit. Sasuke, while trying to save Sakura from the oncoming car that was driven by a homicidal teenager, had forgotten all about closing the video section. So, of course, Sakura could see that he had watched the whole Romeo and Juliet play that they had done in seventh grade. That Sakura had _actually kept_.

Sakura, knowing that Sasuke had dug into her iPod without permission, blushed furiously before screaming, "Why the hell were you using my iPod? All of these things are really personal!" And it was true. The songs came from memories. Sakura downloaded only the songs that had memories for her, songs that had meaning. She kept videos and pictures of the past in her iPod, which was why the iPod was like a baby to her. If she lost it, it would be like losing all of her memories. Precious memories that involved Naruto, herself…and Sasuke. Her heart twisted painfully.

But, apparently the bastard didn't know that. Which was why he had taken it in the first place. Right? Sasuke didn't even know why he took it. So if he didn't know, how could he tell Sakura _why?_ So Sasuke used his defense mechanism: changing the subject.

"You haven't even thanked me for saving your life," Sasuke told her as-a-matter-of-factly.

Opening her mouth to give him a nice retort and a blow to his ego, Sakura was just about to say a witty remark—

"I'm heading over to my next class. First class is already over."

—before the bell rang and hundreds, _thousands_ of other students all over the campus began walking, driving, biking to their next class. Wherever that was. Just before she could call Sasuke back over to thank him and then verbally kick his sorry ass, the raven-haired boy disappeared into the crowd.

Sakura stomped her foot. "Dammit!" she cursed as she picked up her knapsack and giant textbooks and brushed off the leaves that clung to her clothes and hair. Still holding her beloved iPod in her hand (thank God!), Sakura smiled happily before putting on the earbuds, selecting a song, and walking away toward her psych class. Then she mentally slapped herself before muttering to herself, "I forgot to thank Sasuke-kun for saving me…" She smiled. "Oh, well. If I see him again, then I'll make sure I do it."

And so, off she went on her way to psychology, singing along to the current song that was playing on her iSakura.

_**I fought it for a long time now**_

_**While drowning in a river of denial**_

_**I washed up, fixed up,**_

_**Picked up all my broken things**_

'_**Cause you left me, police scene, chalk line**_

_**Tequila shots in the dark scene of the crime**_

_**Suburban living with a feeling that I'm givin' up**_

_**Everything for you (for you)**_

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:** WH00T WH00T! I'm updating these things pretty fast, eh? I have a feeling that I made Sasuke a little OOC…is he? O.O I don't know. Anyways, I've written another fic (SasuSaku—I know, I know I should be focusing on this one) that's going to be based on _Titanic_. It's called _**Herculean**_. Check it out if you like SasuSaku! But I warn you, in there, there is a character death (and we all know who dies in the end).

Anyway, update on the next chapter: probably not for a week or something… I don't know. Anyway, anyone notice something about the song I chose to end with? How'd you like this chapter? Remember, I don't update till I get some reviews! And once again, thank you so much for those who have reviewed. I greatly appreciate it. :)

_Review, review, review._


	4. iLove Psychology

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note: **Oh, yeah! Before I forget: this is a sort of sad chapter…ish? I don't know. Anyways, when you come across them, I'll be having flashbacks in here. Only, they're going to be kind of sudden, so you'll have to read them without the words (flashback) to help you. In other words, they're going to switch back and forth from flashbacks to present time in a period of time in the story. Er, enjoy?

**Chapter 4**

**i"Love" Psychology**

**-xxx-**

"Oh, dearie, I'm so glad I found you again!"

That was Sakura, babbling to her iPod (why couldn't she tell that it was an inanimate object?), cooing to it as if it were a little baby that she had lost as a mother and had struggled to find.

Well, it was half true. Sakura had overturned other _people_ trying to find her precious iPod for Chrissake! Of course she would treat it like it deserved its own pedestal of some sort.

The rosette had put her other textbooks away in the car, only carrying a single psychology textbook. Her arms, once dying, were now strong and happy due to the weight that was lifted off of them. By now, Sakura was almost to her psychology class. She walked into the building, humming happily to herself to the song she was currently playing. A happy tune filled her ears.

_**I got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine**_

_**I got a love that I know that is all mine**_

_**Oh, oh whoa**_

Oblivious to her surroundings, Sakura continued to hum the happy tune, tuning everything out but her beloved iPod's song. She didn't notice a certain redhead sneak up behind her.

Until she felt a violent push tip her forward, throwing her off balance. Textbook, notebooks, and knapsack all fell away, the earbuds of her iPod ripping out of her ear sockets as the poor pink-haired girl crashed onto the floor, laying there, sprawled awkwardly.

The redhead cackled before adjusting her glasses, giving her lenses an ominous glint. "Oops," she said, feigning innocence, "My bad. I didn't see you there." Face scrunching up in satisfaction, Karin looked down at her innocent, pink-haired victim before walking in the path of her books, kicking them across the floor.

Sakura stifled the urge to scream and shout after the disgusting redhead. _'No,'_ Sakura told herself. _'If I do that, that'll be letting her win._' And letting the enemy win was _not_ an option. Gathering her notes and knapsack as quickly as possible (what was it? 'Toss Sakura's stuff around' Day?), Sakura dashed quickly to her psychology class, reaching the entrance just as the bell rang.

The green-eyed beauty let out a sigh of relief. '_That was close…'_ she thought before taking a random seat and placing her pink headphones in her ear once more. Just as she was about to pick one of her screamo songs—they helped her relax—the student next to her stirred as he saw Sakura fiddle with her iPod.

"Sakura?" a deep, familiar voice called.

Much to her dismay, Sakura knew that voice. Oh, how she knew it all too well. She turned to the student sitting beside her—Lady Luck was frowning upon her today—knowing all too well who she was coincidentally sitting by. "Sasuke?" she returned, not removing her ear-buds from her ears or looking at him, still angry at him for practically stealing her iPod. '_How dare that…that…' _Sakura scrambled for a word, thinking through all the cuss words in her head. '_Poop-face!'_

Of all the bad words in the world…

"What the hell are you doing here?" The raven-haired man was presently scowling at her dangerously.

Sakura almost laughed. Almost. She rolled her eyes before she sarcastically bit out, "Why, dearest Sasuke, I'm here because I'm studying to become a clown and I had forgotten my shoes here. Have you seen them?" She rolled her eyes again. "Seriously, Sasuke-kun, why the fuck else would I be here?"

She could feel dozens of stares coming from girls sitting behind the two of them that were shooting daggers at her at the very moment. She ignored them. Painfully.

Sasuke stiffened as he heard her sarcastic remark before replying with a simple, "Hn."

"Seriously, Sasuke-kun, why don't you add some new words to your vocabulary?" Right now, the pinkette was wishing that the psychology teacher would show up. And not just as soon as possible. To hell with that crap. She wanted the psych teacher to show up. _Now_.

"Hn."

Sakura cranked up the volume of her screamo song, so loud that Sasuke, sitting next to her, could hear it clear enough to make out the words. So far, the lyrics were quite depressing.

_**I've got my hands around your throat,**_

_**And I think I hate you!**_

_**I've got my hands around your throat,**_

_**And I think I hate you!**_

Sasuke winced, the song almost a message to him from the girl herself. Almost. The onyx-eyed man managed to pluck her iPod, vulnerably sitting on the connected desk, away from Sakura and out of her reach as the pink-haired girl, now knowing his actions, flailed for it, failing miserably.

"Tch. Stupid, turn it down or else you'll screw up your hearing." The handsome Uchiha said this as he did the action himself, using his thumb to lower the ear-drum-breaking volume and attempt to help bring back the girl's poor ears back to life.

Just as the Uchiha had set the iPod down, Sakura turned the volume back up to its deafening decibels.

Sasuke sighed. '_She's mad at me for stealing her iPod…'_ It seemed really illogical to the Uchiha, sitting there and listening to the remainder of the song. How could she be angry at _him_ after he had saved her life and then go on with life as it never happened? This thought irked Sasuke beyond his borders of sanity as he sat there in his psychology class. How ironic.

"Sakura," he murmured as low as possible.

His tone made Sakura tremble involuntarily. She forced herself to stop. '_He doesn't affect you anymore…he doesn't…he _doesn't…'

Calmly, the rosette replied just as softly, "What is it, Sasuke-kun?"

Just as he was about to tell her about how the little ingrate had to still thank him for saving her life, the stupid bastard of a teacher decided to burst through the door with a flying sidekick. Smacking Sasuke square in the face and practically leaving a foot imprint.

The sound of angry, shocked, and unbelieving screams and squeals came from Sasuke's fangirls. Jeez. They were _everywhere_. Where was one place that they _wouldn't_ be? Oh, what Sasuke would do to find such a Heaven. But right now, the Heavens were hating him, cursing him to be stuck with a woman of his childhood he hadn't seen in years who had become music-crazy; cursing him to be practically stalked by hundreds of adoring fans; and cursing him, cursing him, cursing him to be the one who got kicked in the face by the psychology teacher. What could be more humiliating than that?

Faintly, Sasuke heard Sakura laughing behind her hand. She was the only one out of the whole population of girls that was actually _laughing _at the poor raven-haired man's misfortune.

The psychology teacher now stood in the front of the room, his shiny black bowl-cut reflecting rays of light into the lake of students. He gave his students a nice guy pose, his right thumb sticking up and his left hand resting on his hip, a gigantic smile flashing on his face. "Hello there, youthful students!" he called loudly, his voice echoing around the room. "Are you ready to learn some psychology?"

Murmurs of "yes" filled the room.

Bowl-cut Dude flashed another blinding grin before introducing himself. "My youthful students, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Maito Gai. Professor Gai, if you like me being professional sounding." Professor Gai grinned before resuming his welcoming speech. "Now, I would like you all to introduce yourselves to the class from where you're standing."

Groans echoed through the room, students yelling things like, "Oh, c'mon!" and "You've gotta be kiddin' me!"

Oh, but the unpredictable professor was serious alright. Dead serious. "Do it or you all get pink slips out of here."

That shut them up.

"Now," Gai said cheerfully, "let's see who our first victim—er, volunteer is." He scanned the crowd before landing his eyes on a certain pink-haired, green eyed young lady sitting near the front of the classroom. He pointed to her. "_You_, my dear cherry blossom, will begin. Then," he continued, trailing his finger towards Sasuke and over, "it will continue this way and snake back."

Sakura stood up to introduce herself to the class, fangirls glaring daggers at the back of her head. She fiddled with her hands as she stood there under everyone's gazes. "Um…my name is Haruno Sakura. I'm twenty-four-years-old and I want to become some kind of doctor someday, hopefully a pediatrician." She sat down quickly, trying to hone down the intensity of the fangirls' death glares.

Sasuke stood up next, his ears meeting dozens of girlish sighs and squeals. He sighed. Then, resolutely standing there next to his old childhood friend, he stated, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I'm also twenty-four-years-old and I'm currently majoring mathematics. I'm in this class because I want to get a degree in psychology. Someday, I wish to become a calculus professor at Konoha University."

And so, the process went on and on, snaking through the students of the room. Every time a fangirl stood up, they either screamed, "I LOVE YOU, SASUKE-KUN!" or said something remotely about being a fangirl.

Sakura nearly laughed her ass off when she heard a girl (apparently a fangirl) standing up and say, "My name is Matsuri Sora and I'm just in here to follow my true love that shall not be named. I plan to become head of a fan club for him and devote all of my time for him, finding out what color he likes, what kind of girl he likes, et cetera, et cetera." She smiled sweetly before screaming, "SASUKE-KUN ROCKS!"

Everything went eerily quiet, surprisingly even the loud, obnoxious teacher.

"Okay!" Gai-sensei then proclaimed after everyone had introduced theirselves. "Time to get a move on, youthful students! Today we'll be learning about the youthful theory of classical conditioning, thought of by a youthful man by the youthful name of Pavlov. Pavlov…" _Blah, blah, blah…_

Sasuke sighed. He had already read about this before he had actually gone into psychology class. I mean, it was cool that they could review it. But did the professor really have to use the word "youthful" about twenty times in the same sentence? '_Probably an exaggeration,' _Sasuke thought before tuning in to whatever the hell the professor was saying.

"Youthfully, the youthful Pavlov youthfully proclaimed that this youthful theory—"

Sasuke tuned out. '_Never mind…'_ He turned to look at the rosette next to him who was eerily quiet. The raven-haired man had expected that the girl was taking notes, listening promptly to the teacher's lecture as she had always done from middle school to high school.

Instead, she was listening to her iPod. What a fucking surprise.

He looked her over.

Sakura's hair was messily tied up in a high bun, strands of pink hair grazing her cheeks. It seemed a little messy. But, seeing how she had rushed into the psychology room, it wasn't much of a surprise. The onyx-eyed twenty-four-year-old looked on, eyeing her white blouse against her creamy-looking skin and her blue jeans. He took a risk at looking at her eyes, hoping that he hadn't noticed him giving her the once-over. Sasuke took the risk, seeing her green eyes glazed over, staring at whatever was on the iPod's screen.

'_What the hell's she looking at?'_ Sasuke wondered before scooting his seat a little closer to the pink-haired girl, staring over her iPod.

Sakura, thank God, didn't notice.

Sasuke continued to look over her, trying to make out what was on her screen. Then (he facepalmed himself) he realized it was a music video.

Sasuke gazed at the screen, analyzing the music video. It seemed like it was the beginning of the video, a man in a full suit and tie on a stage, playing the piano and singing into a microphone. The Uchiha scowled at the screen. '_What the hell is he saying?_'

It didn't look like the man was saying anything in a language that Sasuke knew (and he knew a _lot _of languages).

Before he knew what he was doing, Sasuke reached over to Sakura, still in a daze, and plucked one of her pink head phones out of her ear.

Sakura, surprised, whipped her head towards Sasuke. '_What the hell?_' Then she stopped. The music was just beginning.

Before Sasuke had rudely stolen one of her beautiful, seductive pink ear-buds, Sakura was listening to one of the most beautiful foreign songs ever. It was famous in China a few years ago or so. All of the Chinese teenagers raved over this song, a song that told of love and heartbreak. The music video broke everyone's hearts. And Sakura wanted to watch it.

It was going to be her very first time watching it (which was why she had quickly downloaded it before she drove off to college today) and she wanted to watch it.

Without any disturbances.

But, apparently, the prick-bastard of an Uchiha didn't get that. And so, he too, listened to the foreign song, watching the translation appear on screen underneath the Mandarin characters that were at the top of the music video.

'_I should bitch slap him so hard right now that his fangirls scream…_' Sakura thought menacingly, picturing a red-cheeked Sasuke in her head. But right now, she wanted to watch the music video that was so famous in China that broke everyone's hearts.

So, silence met both of their ears as they watched a young man in a suit and tie walk up to a stage and people in the audience slowly materialize, clapping for him as he told his story through music.

The man in the music video clicked some buttons on his cell phone and laid it onto the beautiful, black grand piano, the sound echoing throughout the theater with a loud thud. Mandarin characters flew across the screen as he placed his fingers on the piano tensely.

On the bottom of the screen, the translation read:

_**Tong Hua (Fairytale)**_

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Fairytale? Mandarin music? He turned to look at Sakura. '_What is she putting on her iPod these days?_' He was about to open his mouth to question Sakura about her iPod content…

Until beautiful piano music rushed to his ears through the pink headphone that lay snugly in his ear hole. The stoic man turned his attention to the iPod's screen, watching as the man in the music video played a beautiful opening.

The scene switched from a man onstage, playing a recital, to a hand, waving in the air to a messed up tempo. The camera panned down and away, revealing a girl and a young man, the same one that was doing the recital.

But instead of beautiful piano music that flowed, inexperienced fingers plunked at the keyboard trying to find a tune. The girl in the music video stood up from her couch, walking to the piano. Then, she plunked out a few keys in a melodic tune. It was an adorable tune, one that could be sung along to.

The man in the music video thought so, too. In a foreign language that Sasuke had never heard, the man began to sing, fingers still playing at the piano. The two read the subtitles that were provided.

_**I've forgotten how long it's been**_

_**Since the last time I heard you**_

_**Tell me your favorite story**_

The song began like this. As it progressed the two of them, pink-haired and raven-haired, emerald-eyed and onyx orbs, listened, read translations, and watched, intrigued by the story line that the music video had to offer.

As the music video progressed, the two saw the boy and the girl slowly fall in love, the girl denying fairytales and saying nothing like it existed, and a boy whose idealistic mind said that they could fall in love without consequences, that there could be a happy ending. His song repeated his actions.

_**I'm willing to become the one in the fairytale**_

_**The angel that you love**_

_**I extend this pair of hands**_

_**And turn them into wings to protect you**_

Sasuke watched as the man and the girl kissed. He felt something… a feeling as he remembered the girl (in the music video)'s words as she watched a fairytale on television with the man she loved. She had said, "How could such a thing exist?"

'_They don't…right?'_

The story flew by. The song turned from happy to bad in moments.

_**You told me as you cried**_

_**That all the fairytales are lies**_

_**And that I couldn't possibly be your prince**_

Sasuke felt a lump form in his throat as he watched the girl in the music video fall on the stage that her love had lead her onto so that she could hear how his music, the song that she had helped him in the beginning with, had progressed, had changed with her around.

The boy in the video rushed outside, the song still playing. In his arms, the girl said weakly, "Will you remember me?"

Her lover stared at her.

"Will you remember me for a long time?" she repeated. A drop of liquid fell to the ground. It was as red—just like blood. "When you think of me," she continued, "be happy!"

Sasuke felt a warm drop of liquid plop onto his arm. He turned to look at the rosette that sat next to him.

And froze at the sight.

Her eyes, shining emeralds, were brimming with unshed tears, watching the unavoidable tragedy in the music video.

'_Those eyes…'_ Sasuke thought, memories pounding at his head. The first one flashed into his mind, a picture of a five-year-old rosette. When they had first met.

_ Shining emeralds brimming with tears…_

_A small, pink-haired girl, cried in a cherry blossom field._

"_Stop it! Stop it!"_

_Cruel laughter echoed from a group of four girls. "Billboard brow, billboard brow!" _

_Poke, poke, poke._

Sasuke's mind fast-forwarded to seven years later. When they were both twelve and they had done the Romeo and Juliet play. The kiss, the dance.

_A developing girl, full of laughter and joy in the beginning._

_Laughing, smiling, enjoying life._

_A smiling cherry blossom with pink-hair. "Sasuke-kun!"_

_He had come across her again that night. Same four girls since seven years ago. Ripping apart her hair, ruining her dress. _

"_You loser! You can't get away with dancing with _our_ Sasuke-kun!"_

_Same pink-haired girl, crying, her once beautiful hair pulled on, messy as hell._

"_Stop it! Stop it!" She cried. "That hurts!" _

_All the raven-haired boy could do was watch._

"Omigod…" Sasuke whispered, not even paying attention to the music video anymore, his mind now remembering the incident that had happened merely a half hour ago. "Omigod…"

_The car picked up speed. Sakura was still in the streets picking up her notebooks slowly. Painfully slowly. _

Sasuke remembered him dashing for the rosette in the street, remembering how his legs had screamed bloody murder. And how much he wanted to save her. He felt his breath stop, his breathing cease, when he thought of what would have happened if he hadn't saved her. His mind rushed back to the drop of blood that he had seen on the iPod screen. It would have been like that.

'_Only worse,'_ Sasuke thought, trying to suppress the wave of horror that passed through him as he thought of the consequences, of what would happen later on. On how it would have felt like…

Sasuke didn't finish his thought. '_Of course I can go on without her. She's nothing like that to me.'_ He looked at her again, watching her dry her tears before turning away.

'_Nothing._'

It had taken Sasuke so long, _so long_ to build up the stoic demeanor of his in order to get away from his fangirls, from his life when his parents had died. He had a brother, too, but his brother was nowhere to be found. He was, essentially, _alone_. That was why he had to make himself stronger, by hiding his emotions from other people, by putting anger and emotionless-ness as his mask. To become stoic was to become strong. And that was what he needed to get through. Sasuke wasn't going to abandon it so easily.

But… something in his mind told him else wise. Something in his mind whispered, '_You have to protect her_.' He turned to her, watching her stare at the iPod's screen with those tear-filled eyes. Those eyes that always seem to do something to him. It was always_ something_. Something Sasuke couldn't put his finger on. Oh, how it irritated him. But right now, he pushed that feeling aside, knowing that he had to protect her like he had all those times in the past and the earlier moments in the day. Or else….

'_Or else you'll be all alone_,' whispered that same voice in his mind.

"Sakura," he began, trying to keep his voice as low as possible, "Sakura!"

Sakura, still wiping at her eyes, turned towards him before murmuring, "What is it, Sasuke-kun?"

"I—"

"YOU THERE!"

The rosette and the raven-haired boy winced as they realized that they were still in class. With a volatile teacher that could deliver a mean flying sidekick to the face.

Sasuke rubbed his cheek unconsciously, remembering the blow.

"YOU TWO!" Gai-sensei repeated. "Since you two seem to know about classical-conditioning, would you two like to be the demonstrators of my example to the class?"

The two froze, not knowing what to say.

"Get up here, youthful students!" the psycho psychology professor cheerfully boomed, gesturing to them with a welcoming arm and a flashing smile. Then he turned serious. "Before I give you the pink-slip."

Sasuke and Sakura didn't question him as they made their way up to the front of the room.

"Now," Professor Gai began, "here's how the experiment's going to work." He turned to Sasuke. "What's your least favorite kind of food?"

Sasuke stared at him. "Is this a joke?"

Gai-sensei laughed. "No, this is for the youthful example, silly youth!"

'_Well,' _Sasuke thought, _'what's the worst that can happen?_' Out loud, Sasuke answered, "Sweets"—he grimaced—"especially _chocolate_." Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he could see all of his fangirls bending over their papers and writing it down. He stifled the urge to roll his eyes at them.

The professor nodded, his bowl-cut bouncing as he did so. "I see…" he muttered before bounding over to his desk happily and taking out a big chunk of chocolate.

Sasuke twitched. Oh, how he _hated_ sweets, let alone the sight of them. Chocolate was number one on his hate list. And it wasn't losing its title very soon. "What the fuck are you thinking, Gai-sensei?"

The professor smiled brightly at him, waving the chocolate bar in his face. "Why, dearest Sasuke, I'm simply showing the class what Pavlov's classical conditioning looks like!" The gleam in his eye (Sasuke _knew_ it was there!) glinted once more. "Now," he said deviously, "I want you two to _kiss_."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Sakura's jaw dropped. "_WHAT?_"

The fangirls in the psychology classroom began to deliver outraged cries of disapproval.

"Gai-sensei, you're _not_ going to do that!"

"Yeah, that's soooooo _not_ cool, like, yeah!"

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY SASUKE-KUN, PINKY!"

The last comment made Sakura involuntarily twitch. '_Don't touch him?_' Her inner self made herself known.

'_**That bitch! Who does she think she can tell **_**me**_** who to touch, ne?**_'

Sakura sighed, trying to control her inner-self's outraged cries. '_We might as well get over it…'_

The raven-haired man spoke monotonously, his voice cutting through the fangirls' cries. "Gai-sensei, I really don't think this is—"

"Do it, or I'll give you the pink slip out of here and another kick to the face," Gai said in a frightening, so-_not _-youthful tone. He turned to the fangirls. "And _you_ people," he voiced ferociously, "shut up, and stop complaining over your _precious_ 'Sasuke-kun'."

Sasuke sighed. '_Why does Konoha have to have such crazy professors?'_

Silence enfolded the room as the two students, pink and midnight haired, thought it through. Would they really rather get kicked out of psychology class? I mean, _really_? Was it worth it? Even though the psychology teacher himself was fucking insane, that didn't mean that it was really necessary to get kicked out of psych class. I mean, _come on_. It was just a measly kiss…right?

Sasuke was the first to break that silence. "Fine," he muttered. "I'll do it."

Before Sakura could protest his decision and voice her own opinion, Sasuke had pulled her flush against him. She felt her cheeks burn a bright pink. Sasuke smirked at her. He bent down to put his lips next to her ear.

"Scared?" he breathed out.

Sakura trembled slightly. _'It's out of nervousness…that's it. Yeah,'_ Sakura thought to herself, trying to make up an excuse before she answered him with a breathless, "No."

Gai-sensei (the pervert) was watching them. He looked towards the rest of his students and flashed them the nice guy pose. "Youthful students, you are about to witness a youthful action! YOSH!"

The two in the front of the room didn't notice. They just kept at each other.

Sasuke, realizing that she had answered him with a "no", smirked, leaning closer to her face until their lips almost touched. They were a quarter of an inch apart. "You will be… _Sakura_." And with that, the raven-haired man that made every girl swoon claimed her lips.

The fangirls shrieked.

"NOOOO! SASUKE-KUN!"

"PINKY, STOP TOUCHING HIM!"

"GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM HIM! SASUKE-KUN, I'LL SAVE YOU!"

But they could do nothing. Gai-sensei had made it so. And whatever the psycho psych teacher said, went.

The kiss, lasting only ten seconds, broke off when Sakura had tugged her lips away, her lips swollen. Sakura's breathing was just harsh intakes of air. Her heart pounded in her chest. '_I…kissed him.'_ The thought made Sakura's heart pound even harder. '_I _kissed_ him._' Just the fact, knowing that she had done something as what one would call "being more than a friend," made Sakura stop breathing for a moment. She had _kissed_ him. The Uchiha Sasuke, heartthrob of Konoha.

Sasuke let go of her and wiped his lips. It was just for show though. Inside, the onyx-orbed man was trembling in _God-knows-what_ emotion. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stop. '_I didn't like it. I _didn't._'_ Of course he didn't…right? He was supposed to be emotionless, a block of ice…but he had felt _something_ during the kiss. And he didn't want to find out _what_. Instead of battling with his insides, Sasuke turned towards the psycho psychology teacher. "Now what?"

Gai-sensei's grin only grew wider. "Now," he continued, breaking off a piece of chocolate, "I want you, Sakura, to eat this."

She did so, eating it quickly. After she was finished, Gai-sensei told the two of them, "And now, you must repeat the process of kissing." He turned to the class. "You see, class, if the kiss gave them pleasure—or perhaps even _displeasure_—and then another kiss was given with a sort of sight, smell, taste, or touch, then that stimulus, whenever used, would give the other person, who has been exposed, _pleasure_ or _displeasure_."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and then mentally facepalmed himself. '_Right. This is Pavlov's classical conditioning. And _I'm_ being classically conditioned._" He scowled. Aw, fuck.

"Gai-sensei," began a certain rosette, "I think another example would be—"

He waved her away. "Nonsense, my youthful cherry blossom! No example would be better and youthful as this!" He flashed the nice guy pose. "Now, Uchiha, kiss her!"

Knowing that his defiance would leave him with a foot-print to the face, Sasuke reluctantly kissed her… again. He tasted the chocolate in her mouth. An unexpected explosion of pleasure wracked his system. This time, Sasuke was the one who pulled away and breathed heavily. _'What the fuck was _that?'

Sakura was about to ask the same thing. She had never felt this way before. So the question that was looming between the two of them was basically this: _What the fuck just happened?_

The professor looked extremely pleased. "Now, Sasuke, I want you to eat the chocolate."

Sasuke gave him one of his best scowls. "What?"

"Eat the chocolate."

"…."

"Eat it, Sasuke, or—"

"Fine. I'll eat it," the raven-haired man snapped before snatching the chocolate bar away from his professor. He glared at the chunk of pure sugar in distaste as if trying to burn holes through it. '_Stupid chocolate bar…stupid professor…stupid…_everyone," he thought before biting a small piece of chocolate and chewing carefully.

What came next was also totally unexpected. Sasuke felt a blast of pleasure hit his system. Again. The same feeling that he had gotten from Sakura's chocolate kiss. '_Stupid classical conditioning…'_ Sasuke had kissed her. Then he had kissed her with the chocolate. So, then that would mean, if he was classically conditioned to like the kiss, that meant that Sasuke would also like the chocolate. And sadly, he did. Slowly but surely, Sasuke was beginning to hate psychology class. And the first day wasn't even over.

"Alright, alright!" Gai-sensei shouted happily when he knew his experiment had worked. "Thank you, my dear youths! You may now take your seats." He showed them to their chairs.

The two of them both sat down, scooting over to their own opposite edges of the table.

'_Well, isn't this fucking amazing…first day of med school and I'm already getting a story to tell to my friends and family,'_ Sakura thought, still trying to scoot farther away from the raven-haired man sitting next to her. She glanced over at him before flushing at what had just happened. '_Could this get any worse?_'

To both of their horror, indeed it could.

"Alright, my youthful students! Are you ready to tackle a psychology project, starting today?"

Groans echoed throughout the room after Professor Gai had stated his proposal.

Gai ignored them. "This psychology project will be between you and a partner—"

All the girls in the room looked towards Sasuke.

"—that _I_ assign to you."

Then the fangirls (and guys) groaned in disappointment.

The sensei ignored this also. "So, my dear youths, the assigning will begin _now_." He looked over all of his students as if calculating who to go with who. Finally, he re-opened his mouth and spewed out, "Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, you two will be paired together for this assignment."

"NO WAY IS PINKY GOING NEAR _MY_ SASUKE-KUN!"

"YEAH! NO FUCKING WAY! GAI-SENSEI, THIS IS A DAMN OUTRAGE!"

"SASUKE-KUN! SASUKE-KUN!"

"Hi, Sasuke-kun! (squeal) He ignored me! Again!"

Sasuke sighed. '_Stupid fangirls.'_ It was crazy. Always obsessing over him since the age of five. It wasn't even funny anymore. Before, they used to be harmless crushes on him, saying "hi" or "bye" shyly. Then, when middle school came around, they grew bolder, scarier and showed their affection through more serious things like love notes and chocolates. And if that wasn't enough… now they were just plain scary. They would probably _kill _in order to have him. And they nearly came close to doing that with a certain pink-haired female that he had known his whole life.

_'Protect her, protect her._'

'_Shut up, stupid voice…'_ Sasuke thought. Great. The psycho of a psychology teacher was affecting him. He tuned into the professor's lecture of the psychology project.

"This project that you will be doing with your assigned partners is absolutely crucial. If you do not do it, you will fail this class regardless of your standards. Now then," Gai said happily, "This project that you're doing will involve learning more of the process of classical conditioning. You and your partner will learn about each other, learn each other's fears, likes and dislikes, habits, etc. Then you will diagnose each other on how they got their fears, likes, dislikes, etc. You and your partner will spend every single moment with each other. _Every single moment_." Gai-sensei emphasized this part the most.

Sakura stifled the urge to hit something. Sasuke gritted his teeth.

"After you have learned all about your partner, you will write a report to me about each other and how the other person's character was formed through classical conditioning. This paper is worth _forty percent_ of your grade." Gai-sensei flashed his nice guy pose once more (seriously, how many times does he have to do it?). "Alright, my dear youths! Class is over for today! Remember to stick with your partners!"

The bell pealed. The students gathered up their belongings, went over to their partners, and marched out of the room, the fangirls glaring daggers at the back of Sakura's head.

**-xxx-**

It was currently lunch time and Sasuke and Sakura were sitting on a marble table underneath a large tree that was rich in colored foliage, red, orange, gold, and brown painting the branches. The clouds in the sky gave way to dashes of blue pieces of sky, letting in some sunlight for the autumn season. The raven-haired man sat there eating his rice ball with tomatoes as the pink-haired girl questioned him for their psychology project.

It was like they were playing twenty questions.

"So, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Favorite book?"

"_Tess of the D'Urbervilles_."

"Favorite food?"

"Tomatoes and rice balls."

"Worst fear?"

Sasuke thought about this. "Fangirls."

Sakura had to laugh at that. "Jeez, all this time I thought you were a big, strong man," she teased, writing down her Sasuke facts before looking at him, a hint of mischievousness in her emerald eyes. "But you're afraid of your own _fans_."

Sasuke scowled at her, putting down his rice ball with tomatoes. "Well, what are you afraid of?"

Sakura flinched. She had never exactly told anyone of her favorite fear. You know, someone could use it against her and take advantage of her. But Sakura wasn't being paranoid; she was just being _cautious_. She looked back at the raven-haired man with shining onyx orbs for eyes.

Sasuke stared back at her, smirking. "What? Are you afraid of _me_ or something?"

The rosette shook her head before giving him a nervous smile and tugging on her long pink locks she had let down. Sasuke noticed that it flowed down to her waist in a pink waterfall. "It's not that, Sasuke-kun. It's just… I've never _told_ anyone about it."

"Well, you have to tell me about it if you want to pass psychology and become a pediatrician," Sasuke told her monotonously in his indifferent voice that only he could make.

The pink-haired girl hesitated at first, but then reluctantly said, "I'm afraid of water."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You have hydrophobia?"

She nodded.

This took Sasuke by surprise. He had known her all his life. And he had never known that she was a hydrophobic. And if anyone else knew that (especially those nosy fangirls), Sakura would be screwed.

"You're not allowed to go anywhere by yourself anymore, Sakura," Sasuke blurted out before he could stop himself.

The rosette looked at him, her mouth wide open in shock. Slowly, the expression of shock morphed in furrowed eyebrows and a defiantly stuck-out chin. "Who says I can't go anywhere by myself?"

"I did."

Again the shocked expression claimed her face before returning to one of anger and defiance. "Wha—Who do you think you _are_?" Sakura sputtered out between short bursts of angry speech patterns. "You're not my father! You can't fucking tell me what to do!" By now, Sakura was waving her hands around herself, showing her strong disapproval against his words. "You—who the hell do you think you _are_?" Sakura repeated angrily.

"I'm your friend," Sasuke told her calmly. "And I'm not allowing you to go anywhere by yourself anymore. That's _final_."

Sakura stopped her angry gesticulations. '_He…_cares_?' _She thought back to what had happened today that would make him care. '_Think like a psychologist, _be_ a psychologist_!' she told herself, trying as hard as she could to think of all the reasons why.

Was it because he had met her again after four long years of separation? No, that wasn't it. There were other people who were reunited with old friends and could care less about them.

What about him finding her iPod? '_Well, he _did_ see a little bit about our past. Maybe that made him re-remember some memories?_' That sounded pretty logical. She remembered Sasuke having her iPod, having the video of the Romeo and Juliet play that her parents had taped paused on the balcony scene with the added kiss. That evoked some memories. The dance afterwards… and the scary fangirls that had torn apart her costume. Her fist clenched unconsciously.

'_What else could there be for a reason?_' Then, it hit her. Sakura's near death experience when Karin, the fangirl that had been obsessed with Sasuke since they had all been five-year-olds, tried to squish her underneath her humongous car. '_That brunette girl…'_ The one that had bumped into her one the streets. She was probably in on it, too. But that was beside the point. The point was that Sasuke had been the one who saved her. _Sasuke_, the one who she had known since she was five, when he had stood up for her in the cherry blossom fields against the ruthless teasing she'd endured. He was the one who saved her yet again. Her face softened. '_Of course he cares,_' she thought, her heart warming to the raven-haired man who had gone back to eating. '_He just doesn't know how to show it right_.'

Sasuke's voice cut her out of her revelry. "Sakura, I need your help."

She blinked and then turned her head to look at him in his midnight eyes. "Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

He hesitated. "I want you to help me get rid of my fangirls."

Sakura blinked again, only out of cluelessness. "How am I going to do that?"

That was when Sasuke looked at her full in the eyes, resolution present in his onyx orbs. "_You_ are going to pretend to be my girlfriend."

Sakura's mouth dropped. "_What?_!"

**-xxx-**

**Author's note: **Alrighty! WH00T WH00T! This is the longest chapter so far! 16 pages on Microsoft Word, yo! ^0^ Anyway, I'm so psyched! I already know the whole plot to this thing (well, _main_ thing anyways). I have to thank everyone for the reviews that they gave me, especially randomwhiteasiansFTWXD (did I spell that write), SasuSaku Forever and Ever, and HeyNowDontGetMad for all their support. I love you guys all, including the ones that I haven't named in here. So…tell me: how'd you like it? Leave a review!

Imagine me running around the psychology classroom, acting like a psycho. I'm screaming:

_**REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!**_

Keep me sane and review, please! :D


	5. iHelp You, You Help Me?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or the songs used. :P

**Chapter 5**

**iHelp You, You Help Me?**

**-xxx-**

Sakura sat there, staring at him from under a messy waterfall of pink hair. Her mouth was still wide open. '_He…he cares, right? He cares about me. Right?'_ Suddenly, the revelation that Sakura had come up with just moments ago seemed a little bit shaky. No one who cared about someone else would ever _use_ them to lose a few other people. In this case, Sasuke was trying to lose his fangirls. Only a person who didn't care would use another person. And…Sasuke cared. Right? '_This is so confusing…'_

Still battling her inner thoughts, Sakura murmured just loud enough for the raven-haired man to hear, "Aren't your fangirls going to kill me if I hang out with you? Isn't that why they tried to kill me earlier?"

Sakura could see Sasuke flinching. _Very_ slightly. Then, the onyx-eyed man squared his shoulders before saying in that trademark monotone voice of his, "No."

Sakura opened her mouth to question his judgment before he quickly broke her off.

"They aren't going to try and kill you because I'll make sure that it won't happen."

"But, how are you going to do _that_?" Sakura inquired curiously. It would take a miracle to actually have Sakura come out of the experience alive and not have battle scars from the vicious fangirls that had already staked Sasuke as "theirs".

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, his onyx orbs boring into her brilliant emerald ones. "Don't question me on my judgment. Just do as I say. Got it?" Why could this pink-haired girl trust him? He was trying to do it for both of their sakes, not just his. '_If only she could grasp that…'_

"Do you understand, Sakura?" the raven-haired man repeated again.

Sakura stiffened, clenching her fists in anger. Never before had she seen, heard, or been with a man that had tossed her around like this. What did she look like? Movable chopped liver? A puppet? '_Well, I'll be used as one _now_,'_ she thought on that thought of being a puppet. It was true. Sasuke was just going to use her to get his fangirls away. '_And then once he's already gotten rid of them…_'

Tears sprung to her eyes. A voice in her head completed her sentence. '_…he'll leave you.'_

Trying to push away the unpleasant thought, Sakura tried to drown out her flowing thought process, reaching inside her pocket for her iPod. Sasuke was such a heartless bastard. He had already left her once. And now he was going to do it. Again. She felt her heart contract in her chest.

Sasuke scowled at her silence. Just as he was about to point out that she _owed_ him for saving her life, he heard Sakura muttered out a bitter, "Why can't you man up and actually tell them off?"

Her question irritated him. "I can," he returned with a scowl. "I can."

"So why don't you?" Sakura nearly screamed out at him hysterically. "If I—" She stopped. '_If I can't have you the right way, then I don't want you at all._' She wasn't going to tell him that. She was never going to tell him that. Sakura had always loved him. It was when he had stood up for her when she was teased about twenty years ago. When he had found her crying in the cherry blossom fields. But he had never known that. At some point, she had thought that they were actually—dare she say it—_friends_. '_Guess not,' _she thought bitterly before adjusting her ear-buds into a comfortable position and picking a song on her iPod. She cranked up the volume.

'_He'd never feel the same way for me, no matter how much he showed that he cared._'

Tuning everything out, the rosette listened to her song. She gave her iPod a sad smile as she listened to how the iPod re-voiced her life and love for the raven-haired man that sat in front of her.

_**I don't know but, I think I may be**_

_**Fallin' for you, droppin' so quickly**_

_**Maybe I should keep this to myself**_

_**Wait until I know you better…**_

Sasuke sighed as he watched the rosette reclude to her precious iPod. "Why do you always do that, Sakura?"

"Do what?" Sakura said, nodding to the music.

The raven-haired man stifled the urge to break the marble table. "Go crawling to your iPod instead of actually talking to me about what the hell is on your mind.

Sakura just ignored him, turning her whole self away from him and rotating her body halfway away from him, ignoring his glare. "Go suck a dick, Sas-_gay_. My reasons aren't for you to know."

Sasuke _fumed_. No way was some fucking _girl_ going to tell him to go suck a dick and call him _Sas-gay_. He gritted his teeth at the name and her irritating, defiant little ways. '_That little…'_ The raven-haired man was just about to open his mouth and give her a little middle-school answer like, "_You_ go suck a dick!"…

When he heard suspicious rustling in the bushes.

Sasuke, knowing that particular rustling pattern anywhere, immediately tensed. '_Fangirls…'_ He thought quickly, thinking over what he could do in order to make it seem like he and Sakura were now an item.

As quickly as he thought, Sasuke scooted over to Sakura's portion of the round marble table, placing both of his legs on either side of the bench. As he had done in psychology class, he reached over to Sakura's ear and plucked out a pink headphone before placing it snugly in his ear. Music sounded into his ear.

_**I've been waiting all my life **_

_**And now I found you**_

_**I don't know what to**_

_**I think I'm fallin' for you…**_

Ignoring the song, Sasuke quickly wrapped an arm around the pink-haired female and pulled her closer to him. Her pink locks brushed against the skin of his arms as he pulled her against him. In their current position, any person that was looking at them from behind could mistake them as a kissing couple. Which was exactly what Sasuke had wanted the fangirls, hiding in the bush behind them, to believe.

But they weren't.

It was only an extremely uncomfortable position for Sakura, her legs, once crisscrossed on the bench, were now spread apart, one leg placed on either side of the bench, her chest pressing against his as he embraced her. Her hands braced themselves on his broad shoulders. Sakura could feel one of his hands on the small of her back…and the other in her long, pink hair. Sasuke locked gazes with her, onyx clashing with emerald. His eyes gave her the message, the thing that he was psychically (or so she thought) was telling her: '_Fangirls.'_

But that wasn't what Sakura was focusing on. The only thing that she was really conscious of was the closeness of their bodies…and their lips. If Sakura had lifted her head just a little, their lips would touch. But, knowing that this was just for show, she didn't do it. No matter how much she wanted to. So, she kept quiet, moving when Sasuke moved her in order to help the raven-haired man. The raven-haired man that she achingly, painfully loved so much and would do anything for. '_I'm such a loser,'_ she thought while she struggled to stay in the position that Sasuke had put her in, trying to stop her trembling.

After a minute or two, Sasuke made her shift her position, resting her head and hands on his chest. Sakura moved herself so that she could be in a more comfortable position. She sighed dramatically, just as a lover would do after she had kissed the love of her life. Sakura wordlessly thanked her parents for signing her up for acting class. '_I'm going to need it…'_ Then, shifting her head so that it was perfectly angled to look up into Sasuke's eyes, she met his gaze with hers, blinking softly, slowly for that flawless effect.

'_I wonder how far he wants me to go with this…' _Sakura thought as she moved her head towards his. '_Could I…kiss him?'_ She moved closer…closer…

Until Sasuke had pushed her away and made her land on her butt in the grass.

"They're gone, stupid," the raven-haired man muttered before going back to his side of the table and resumed eating his rice-balls and tomatoes.

Sakura rubbed at the pain that grew at her tailbone. "Ouch… you prick, that really hurt! Next time tell me when they're gone instead of pushing me off." She slowly stood up, wincing as her tailbone pounded painfully, telling her of abused nerves. The rosette shot a glare at Sasuke, indifferently eating away at his tomatoes. "You know, maybe I won't need any protection from you, anyways. I'd be safer on my own. Besides, the fangirls haven't hurt me much."

_Yet._

Sasuke snorted. "What part of 'aren't allow to go anywhere by yourself' don't you understand?"

Sakura sighed. "Well, I can't really stay here much longer. I've got GED classes to catch, you know." She tapped her iPod screen to emphasize the time. "Since I don't see any more fangirls around here, my job with you is done." She started to stand up.

Sasuke smirked at her. "So, you're agreeing to help me."

Sakura stayed there, standing, staring at him. "Of course I am. You're my friend, aren't you?"

Another smirk.

The rosette playfully punched him in the arm. "Stop smirking at me or I'll have to wipe it off your face." She fixed her white blouse, brushing off the stray grass pieces that clung to her shirt and quickly tied up her hair into a messy pink bun. Grabbing her iPod off of the marble table, Sakura swung her leg over the side of the bench, ready to walk over to her one of her other classes—

—only to be stopped by a certain Uchiha, grabbing her hand to stop her.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Just where do you think you're going?"

"Damn it, Sasuke-kun, I thought I told you—"

"Don't forget that we have a psychology project together." Smirk. "And we have to spend '_every single moment'_ with each other." Sasuke emphasized specifically on _every single moment_. And Sakura could see, exasperation clouding her mind, that she wasn't going to be let off that easily.

"Sasuke-kun—"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, cutting her off. Letting go of her wrist, Sasuke stood up, putting the remainder of his onigiri in his mouth and packing the rest of his things in his bag before walking over to where the rosette stood.

Sakura looked up at him, her green eyes gleaming defiantly. "What the fuck do you want with me, Sasuke-kun? I mean, why can't—"

"I'm not failing psych. And you aren't going to let the fangirls get to the both of us."

The rest of the words died in her throat. Silence enfolded both of them. "T-The both of us? What?"

Sasuke didn't answer her question. Instead, he sighed, clearly irritated. " Tch, you're so annoying. If you really want to go to your GED class, then fine. Go. Meet me later at the café so we can do the psych project. Got that?" He stood there, challenging her to say otherwise. She didn't. Smirk.

Sakura puffed up her cheeks in annoyance, before opening her mouth and yelling, "Sasuke-kun!"

**-xxx-**

Karin had never in her life felt such animosity towards one person. Well, to one or two others, but that was it. And it had never compared to how much a certain pink-haired girl irritated her. '_Stupid Haruno…'_ Karin thought angrily. '_Sasuke was mine. He was all mine. And then _you_ had to come and take him away…_' Her mind wandered back to her childhood, when she had met the Uchiha, when she had actually known him.

_(Flashback)_

_ A pair of broken glasses lay on the floor of the recess grounds next to a small redhead girl. Salty tears coated her face as a group of five-year-old boys and girls gathered around her, laughing and spitting at her._

_ "Ha-ha! Look at the loser!"_

_ Another one laughed along. "Yeah! She's the only one here with those stupid glasses!"_

_ "Those make you look like you have four-eyes!"_

_ "Four-Eyes! Four-Eyes!" _

_ Mocking laughter spread among the cruel children. One little girl came from the crowd. Her hair and eyes were both matching shades of chocolate. She had a malicious smirk painted on her face. The brunette five-year-old bent down to pick up the broken glasses that lay next to the tear-faced redhead._

_ The redhead called out to her. "No, wait! Don't touch them! I need those!"_

_ The brunette cackled evilly before holding up the broken glasses right up to the poor redhead's face. "Oh? You mean _these_? Why would you need them when you look so much more normal like the rest of us? At least you don't have four eyes!"_

_ Tears continued to trail down her dirty cheeks. The redhead screamed, groping blindly for her glasses. "Give them back! Give them back!" _

_ The brunette tossed them away, throwing them into a pond nearby their school yard. "Oopsie. Sorry, Karin. Guess I was being a little clumsy." _

_ "You stupid butt-face! Why didn't you give me back my glasses? You're being mean! You're being..._assholes!_" The five-year-old Karin looked around furiously, trying to find the criminal who threw her glasses into the lake. All she could see were blurry colors and distorted features through her tears and imperfect eyes. _

_ Slowly, the crowd around her dispersed, bit by bit the crowd left. Leaving a redhead girl all alone._

_ Karin kept crying as she placed her head in her hands and washed her dirty face with salty tears. "It's not fair! It's not fair!" she screamed pitifully. _

_ Then she saw a black and creamy-looking blur. She tensed, wiping away some of her tears. "Who are you? What do you want?" _

_ "I got you your glasses back. They're clean," the mysterious voice said before handing the pair of glasses back to the redhead. _

_ Karin slipped them on, blinking to clear up the tears before looking at her helper. A little boy about the same age as her (probably five also) stood there about three feet away looking at her indifferently. '_He's really…pretty'_ Karin thought to herself as she gazed at his features: spiky black hair that strangely resembled a chicken's butt, pale skin, and deep black eyes to match. "Are they okay?"_

_ She nodded before murmuring a note of thanks._

_ He gave her a small smile. "Okay then. Nice to meet you. I'm Sasuke."_

_ She stared at him, paranoia still in her system. "My name is Karin."_

_ He nodded. "That's an interesting name," he told her. "I'm sorry that you got picked on. Those people are just really mean. Ignore them, okay?"_

_ Karin nodded again. Why was this boy being so nice to her?_

_ A faint voice in the distance called his name. "Sasuke! Where are you, dear?"_

_ "I'm coming!" Little Sasuke called back before turning back to his new sort-of friend. "I gotta go now. My mom's calling me." Before he went, the raven-haired boy looked back over his shoulder. "Don't ever be like those people. Okay? They'll make other people feel just as bad as you do."_

_ "Okay."_

_ "You promise?"_

_ Karin nodded at him. "I promise."_

_ And with that, the little raven-haired boy disappeared, running towards the sound of his mother's voice and leaving a small little redhead thinking about the black-haired boy who had reached out to her._

**-xxx-**

Karin had remembered how a few months later she had broken her promise to him. The teasing about her hadn't let up. They still kept calling her "Four-Eyes", making fun of her glasses and her weird red hair. She gritted her teeth at the memory. She remembered how she couldn't take it anymore, how much she wanted to just let loose her steam…so she found a target. One that she knew couldn't fight back and was also teased. Haruno Sakura. And Sasuke had been there to defend her, too. '_The only difference was that I didn't become close to him._' Sakura had stolen her spot, her spot where _she_ was supposed to have him as a friend, as someone who cared. She _needed_ someone to care for her. And it hurt so much that she didn't. She had spent her whole life alone. Her mother and father had died when she was still young and she was taken into foster care. She was always that child that needed a little bit more than normal children would need—like her needing glasses.

Karin clenched her fists, walking away from the bush that she and her Sasuke worshippers had hidden behind when they were spying on the two of them: Sasuke and Sakura.

Sakura had always been luckier than she was: she didn't exactly get teased like Karin did; she actually had (and still did have) parents; and she had the man that Karin loved: Sasuke. That was why Karin had wanted to hurt her. Badly. She teased her in the earliest days because she just wanted to let off steam. Then later on in middle school it became a little bit uglier. Karin had started holding more steam. It wasn't until after that stupid Romeo and Juliet play that Karin had snapped. She really didn't want to hurt Sakura—she had felt bad after she hurt the pink-haired girl. But Karin wasn't thinking. All she was thinking of was how much more fortunate that pinky girl had it in life. And how unlucky she herself was.

This animosity followed her to college. The redhead was fed up with it. With…everything! She had wanted someone to care for her so badly; someone who would help her deal with all her emotional stress that she had carried all alone through her life. And Sakura was in the way of that.

Karin kept walking towards the dorms. She pivoted around on her heel to face her Sasuke herd. "I'm going to head back to my room. You guys just go back to yours. I need to cool off a bit." And with that, the redhead calmly walked back to the girls' dormitory where she would (hopefully) find something to drink or do…anything to calm herself down and take a certain rosette off her mind.

**-xxx-**

Sakura was utterly confused. Currently, the rosette was in her little art class. Well, technically, it was really all-around arts. Not just painting and all that jazz. There was music, charcoal, movie making, drama, acting, and a whole lot more. Sakura was in one of those painting corners where one of the assistant teachers was talking about the history of abstract art and cubism.

"You see, class, cubism was created by _the_ Pablo Picasso. Cubism is Picasso, and vice versa. So, he created cubism by…"

Sakura cut off the assistant teacher's lecture from there. She started moving her brush across the canvas, unconsciously dipping her brush into different colors. She wasn't even exactly thinking about what she was doing. All she was thinking about was what Sasuke had meant when he had said that she would keep the fangirls away for the both of them.

'_For the...both of us? What the fuck does that even mean?'_ The rosette let her brush slide aimlessly across the canvas. She thought back to the way the young man demanded that she help him, how he had claimed her as his "girlfriend" without her consent. '_He doesn't care. People who care don't use other people,'_ Sakura thought angrily as she gripped her paintbrush tighter and angrily dipped it into what she thought was black. She dashed it across the canvas. '_This is just a game to him…'_

It seemed extremely likely. Sasuke could be toying with her. It was entirely possible. Why else would he not just go out and pick some random girl who wasn't a fangirl (or was) to be his fake girlfriend? Why did he have to choose _her_ of all people?

Sakura stabbed at the canvas with her paintbrush. "He's—so—confusing!" Sakura semi-shouted between stabs. Her arms started growing tired. Sighing, the rosette yielded her brush to her canvas support, placing it on the small piece of flimsy wood. "Why does he have to do this to me?" she murmured sadly.

"Sakura!"

Crap. '_I'm still in universal art class, aren't I?'_ Of course. Life just _had_ to fuck her over like that. Slowly, Sakura turned around in her chair to look at the assistant teacher. "Yes, ma'am?" Sakura spoke politely, bracing herself for a long tirade about how she should pay more attention in class instead of running off to La-La-Land.

Instead, the assistant teacher had a gigantic grin plastered on her face. "That is a beautiful work of art you've created, dear."

'_Art?'_ Sakura whipped her head around to look at her canvas board. On the board, there was an elaborate abstract painting, scattered with bits of every color. The prominent colors were pink and blue, and black and green. The pink and blue swirled around each other in the painting, making two human-looking forms that seemed to intertwine themselves together. Black and green seemed like planets on the human-looking forms. The eyes. A shade of dark purple colored the background, almost hiding the inconspicuous yet visible two eighth notes that were joined with a bar. Sakura felt her jaw practically drop to the floor. '_I…did this?'_

"This is beautiful, Sakura! The pink and blue show the passion, the black and green clash, and the purple background! Pure genius!" The assistant teacher swooned over her painting before resuming her teacher-like state. "Pink and blue represent femininity and masculinity. I'm guessing the purple, the bonding of pink and blue, show the binding of femininity and masculinity. You know," continued the assistant teacher, "I've heard that only people who are in love are able to paint like this."

Sakura stiffened before she answered her student teacher. "No, ma'am," the rosette said with a fake smile. "That's not true. I was just…daydreaming, is all. Love has nothing to do with this."

Her inner Sakura laid out her thoughts. '_**Really, Sakura? Are you **_**really**_** not in love? Or are you just **_**lying**_** to yourself?**_**'**

Sakura pushed away her inner self's thoughts and gave her assistant teacher another smile. "But thank you for complimenting my painting."

Just as the assistant teacher was about to further question Sakura on her painting, the bell rang. The pink-haired girl immediately stood up, handed her assistant teacher her painting, and dashed out of there, reaching her car to pick up her large suitcase and heading over to the dorms. Because of all of the drama—and it was only the first day—Sakura had forgotten all about finding out which dorm she was to reside in. '_God…all of this drama crap is getting to me…' _Sakura thought as she rushed over to the girls' portion of dormitories. '_It'll get better though. Right?'_

Sakura burst through the girl's dorm manager's doors.

A woman in the corner stirred, sitting up in her seat to see who had come through her doors. "Hello, how may I help you, dear?"

The rosette walked up to her, trying to hide her agitation. "I actually forgot to check here earlier to find out which dorm I'd be occupying. Could you check and see where I am?"

"Certainly, dear," the middle-aged woman said cheerfully before turning to her computer. Her fingers moved swiftly across the keyboard, searching for the list of dorms. She turned back to the pink-haired girl. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

The dorm manager began typing again. Her computer screen lit up. "Ah, here we are! Haruno Sakura." She scanned the screen for a minute. "It says that you'll be rooming on the fourth floor in room…"

Sakura fidgeted in nervousness.

"Room 401." The dorm manager turned to Sakura again. "I'll get your key, okay, dear?"

The rosette nodded before the dorm manager dashed into a nearby room where (apparently) the dorm keys were stored. Sakura tried to wait patiently. '_C'mon…c'mon….'_

Finally, the dorm lady came out with her key. "Here you go! Have a nice rest of the day!"

Sakura graciously accepted the small key, saying, "Thank you. You, too!" before she ran over to the elevator, dragging along her large roller suitcase. She clambered into the elevator and pressed the button to close the doors then the large button with a worn out '4' on it.

And then she waited. Waited in that small elevator. '_I wish that there was elevator music…_' Sakura thought before pulling out her own iPod. She ran her index finger across the iPod's touch pad, searching for a good song. And then, she found one. The title lit large on the screen:

**I Can't Help Falling In Love With You**

Originally, it was sung by Elvis Presley. But Sakura had downloaded the version that had been sung a little faster and a little more modern. Nevertheless , it was one of the classics, whether modern or not. And the lyrics…they had always made her melt…and think about that certain raven-haired man that she always seemed to have in mind.

_**Wise men say only fools rush in**_

_**But I can't help falling in love with you**_

_**Shall I stay?**_

_**Would it be a sin?**_

_**If I can't help falling in love with you**_…

This song had touched her since she was a little girl. And she still loved it. It felt like her own story, her own life, told in one song. She couldn't help it. She couldn't help falling in love with the man that she had known her whole life. She absolutely hated it, the way that he always made her feel, the way that he spoke, the way he did everything. It irritated her beyond the edges of sanity. But…she still couldn't help it. She still loved him after everything that he had put her through. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

The elevator's dinging broke her train of thought, making her remember that she was in the dormitory. '_Right! I have to focus…Go in there, throw my stuff, and get ready to meet Sasuke at the café…'_

Rolling her suitcase along, Sakura searched for her dorm number. "405, 404, 403…" she muttered to herself as she went down the hallway. She stopped in front of a door inscribed with the number 401. Sakura took her key out of her pocket, putting the key into the keyhole. Successfully opening it, Sakura twisted the knob, pushing the door open, hoping to find a beautiful empty room…

To instead find a room with a familiar redhead sitting on one of the beds, drinking an iced-tea.

Sakura dropped her suitcase handle, the rest of it tumbling toward the floor and landing before her feet. Her jaw fell open, gaping.

The redhead turned her head casually, looking toward the door to see who had come in without knocking…only to find a certain pink-haired girl she was trying to eliminate from her mind. The red-headed girl spat out her iced-tea before readjusting her glasses and pointing at her. "Wha—What the fuck are _you_ doing here?"

Sakura couldn't answer. "I—I was—"

The both of them couldn't believe it. They were—dare they say it—_roommates_. Why did fate have to curse them both? Why did life have to _hate_ them so badly?

The door pushed open a bit more, revealing a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl who had a suitcase the size of a van. "Hey, Forehead! I didn't know you were—" The blonde stopped talking when she saw a certain redhead with glasses sitting on a bed in the corner. "Oh. Hey, Karin."

Ino and Karin stared at each other, Ino still at the door and Karin still sitting on her bed. They glared at each other while Sakura stood there in the middle of them, still gaping at them. '_Ino and Karin…have _met_?_'

All of this information was too much for the rosette to comprehend. Sakura shook her head, throwing her giant suitcase onto a bed that wasn't occupied before grabbing a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt and running into the bathroom.

Ino looked after her friend, watching her close the door before she entered through the door and pulled her suitcase through. Then she resumed her steady glare at the redhead. "What you planning now, Karin? Stop messing with Sakura."

Karin smiled bitterly at her. "I'm not doing anything with her. I was just minding my own business when she came in. Apparently, we're all roomies now." She sat back before resuming drinking her iced-tea.

Ino narrowed her blue eyes at the redhead. "If this is about Sasuke—"

"Shut up, blondie. Sasuke-kun's not _your_ concern. If I were you, I'd watch your little friend Pinky instead of worrying about Sasuke-kun."

The blonde snorted. "First of all, I was never in your little Sasuke worshipper thing or whatever." She crossed her arms over her chest, giving the redhead one of her bitchiest sneers. "I've already got a guy. Second of all, I_ am_ watching out for my friend. So don't tell me something I already know."

Just as Karin was about to spit back at her about Ino's _guy her ass!_, Sakura came out of the restroom dressed in running shorts and a tee-shirt, her hair messily tied back into a pink bun.

"I'm going out for a run," Sakura told them, heading for the door with a pair of running shoes in hand. "See you later, okay?"

Karin threw her legs over the side of her bed, placing them on the floor before standing up to stretch. "I'm going to the café to get some coffee. So I really don't care, Pinky."

Sakura turned around to give her one of her practiced glares. Unfortunately for her, it didn't come out so well. It ended up being a sort of pout with her eyebrows scrunched together in annoyance. What? Sakura never really had any experience with hating people.

Thankfully for her, Ino flashed Karin her own glare. Karin ignored it, walking over to the door. She pushed Sakura aside. "Move it if you're not going, Pinky."

Sakura stumbled before Ino helped her resume her balance. Ino glared after the redhead, shooting daggers into the back of the girl's head before turning back to her friend. "You okay, Sakura?"

The rosette nodded. "Thanks, Ino."

"No problem!" The blonde cheerfully chirped before ushering her friend out. "Now go and jog before it gets dark. Be careful, 'kay?"

Giving her friend a quick nod, Sakura laced up her shoelaces before she dashed down to the hallway and down the stairs (what was the point of going out for a jog if you use the elevator?).

Keeping her iPod in her back pocket, Sakura hummed to the song that kept her mind away from the drama that was currently plaguing her life.

_**Run, baby, run**_

_**Don't ever look back,**_

_**They'll tear us apart if you give them the chance**_

Sakura kept running, jogging as fast as she could, reaching the large park where she and a certain raven-haired man had sat at on a marble table about an hour or two ago. She gave the table a bitter smile before she jogged at a faster pace.

'_He's such a bastard…' _Sakura thought bitterly, rubbing at her eyes, '_playing with me like this…'_

The rosette stayed lost in her thoughts as she continued to jog farther and farther away from the safety of her dormitory and toward a path where a few Konoha University students stayed waiting, watching, prowling and planning.

**-xxx-**

"Damn it!"

The curse came from a brunette. It was the same one from Sasuke's Math 150 class. She was sitting under a large oak tree with one other boy and girl. The girl that the brunette sat with tossed her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder before turning to the man who sat next to her who was combing his black locks that hung right under his chin.

The black-haired man, still brushing his long black locks, looked over at the brunette. "What's wrong now, Reina?"

Reina tugged at her short brown hair. "Gah! I'm thinking about how I totally missed that chance in destroying that stupid Pinky girl. Karin was so mad at me…" She played with her brown hair.

The platinum blonde looked over at her brunette friend. "Are you talking about that Haruno Sakura girl who hangs out with Sasuke-kun all the time?"

"Yeah," the brunette muttered before turning to her blonde friend. "Akiko, you're a fan of Sasuke-kun, too, right?"

Akiko squealed, her platinum blonde locks bounced around her. "Ohmygood_ness_, yes, yes, yes! I _love_ Sasuke-kun!" She shook her fists excitedly. "So we are talking about the same Sakura." Her expression turned absolutely serious. "That bitch has to die."

The black-haired man, who was at first just listening to their girlish conversation, whipped his head around to gape at them. "_What_? You can't kill Sakura!" A dreamy expression took her his face. "Sakura's gorgeous… hottest thing on the planet since sliced bread, I'll tell you that!" He stopped to glare at his two female friends. "I won't let you hurt her!" Well, who would have thought? Sakura had her first fanboy.

The two girls smirked at him. Reina spoke up, still twirling her short brown hair around her finger. "Don't worry, Hitoshi-kun. We won't hurt your _precious_ Sakura-_chan_."

The platinum blonde turned to her friend to voice her opinion, but was met with a sharp elbow to the ribs.

"In fact," the brunette continued, "once Akiko and I are done with her, you can take her!"

Hitoshi stopped brushing his black locks and beamed. "Really? I can have her?"

Smirk. "She's all yours, lover boy."

The blonde and the brunette turned away from their celebrating friend. "If only Sakura were actually here, ne, Reina-san?"

Reina nodded before running a hand through her brown hair, sighing and looking off toward the end of the sidewalk. She watched the colors of the sun changing from cloudy blue to red, pink, and yellow. '_Pink…I _hate_ that color_.' Reina clenched her fists. '_If only she was here right now. Make things a little easier for us…_'

A bob of pink seemed to dance in the sunlight.

The brunette raised an eyebrow. '_What's this?'_

Still watching the sunset and a bobbing head of pink, a feral grin began to appear on her face, slowly growing into an evil, sadistic smile.

Akiko watched her. "Ne, Reina-san, what are you looking at?"

The brunette pointed in front of her. The platinum blonde followed the path of her finger toward the light of the sunset…

Until she saw a familiar, hated head of pink that was slowly jogging toward them.

Turning her head slowly toward her brunette friend, Akiko mirrored her friend's evil grin. "I see…"

Reina nodded. "Speak of the devil, ne?"

**-xxx-**

Sakura was beyond exhausted. She hadn't been paying attention to anything besides her songs and her thoughts—all revolving around one certain raven-haired man. She hadn't exactly expected any danger. None at all, really. But sadly, there was. And she was approaching it ahead. She hadn't noticed anyone or anything while she was jogging up the cement sidewalk to curve around the park and back to the dorms…

Until she felt herself bump into somebody's chest. Hard.

"Oof!" she said after she had rammed into the person. Sakura rubbed her nose. She looked up at the tall figure in front of her, taking a few steps back. "Ah, I'm sorry. I wasn't really watching where I was—eep!"

The tall figure pulled her up against him. It wasn't exactly dark yet, so Sakura could see his face pretty clearly. At first, she thought it was the young man she had on her thoughts. But then as she gazed closer into the man's eyes, she saw that they were brown—not onyx black.

The rosette tensed, ready to scream in case anything happened. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The man's expression turned seemingly friendly. "Hi! My name's Hitoshi! I've seen you around campus and I really like you." He looked into her green eyes. "You could say I'm one of your fanboys."

Sakura felt her eye involuntarily twitch. 'One_ of my fanboys?'_ So she had _more_ of them? Aw, fuck. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Hitoshi," Sakura began, pulling out of the black-haired man's grasp, "but I really must be—"

She didn't get to finish her sentence.

Something hit her hard on the back. The blow practically blew all the air out of her, making her fall over on the hard cement. Sakura clutched at her injured back, gritting her teeth. Slowly she stood up, turning herself around to find her assailant. There were two of them, actually: one of them a blinding platinum blonde and the other…

Sakura's blood froze.

The other was a familiar brunette that she had seen earlier in the day. The same brunette that had bumped into her right in the middle of the streets. The one who was in cahoots with Karin.

"Hey! I thought you guys were saying you weren't going to hurt her!" Sakura heard the man behind her say.

Sakura gulped down at the bile that seemed to claw at the back of her throat. This was bad. _Very _bad. "Wha—What do you guys want?"

The brunette looked at her innocently. "Why, dearest Pinky, I have no idea what you're talking—"

"Yes, you fucking do! Now tell me what you want!"

The blonde smirked at her. "Why, Pinky, I didn't know you had such a foul mouth. You aren't allowed to talk to others like that." She walked up slowly towards Sakura, leaning in to meet her gaze. "Didn't your parents teach you that?"

Sakura's blood began to boil. "Don't say a goddam single _thing_ about my parents."

"And what if I do—" the blonde gave her a hard shove "—Pinky?"

The brunette launched for her, a hand balled up into a fist aimed to strike and kill.

Sakura dodged out of the way, barely missing it. She didn't see the blond coming in behind her.

"Akiko! Grab her!" the brunette shouted.

Just as Sakura was about to turn around to meet her other assailant, she felt a sickening blow hit her cheek. Unable to deal with the pain, the rosette cried out in agony as the blond took hold of her, bracing the pink-haired girl in order for her friend to deliver more punches.

Remotely, Sakura could hear the black-haired man screaming, "Don't do it! Stop that!"

She could swear that the man had said something else, but right now, she was too preoccupied with the two freaky girls that just decided to jump out of nowhere and attack her. The brunette threw another punch to her ribs, hitting right on target.

Sakura's breath flew out of her lungs, her whole figure lurching forward as she struggled to strike back. But she was hopelessly outnumbered two to one. '_Guess they're just finishing what they started, huh?'_ The rosette just wanted to close her eyes, make everything go away. '_Somebody…'_

The pink-haired female whispered the rest of her thought out. "_Help._"

As if on cue, a black car swerved up in the parking lot right up to where the two girls were beating on Sakura.

Sakura stared at it, grimacing bitterly. '_So, they called some back-ups, huh?'_ She watched as the figure in the car opened the door and calmly stepped out. Her eyes widened.

Stepping out of the car was none other than the raven-haired man himself.

"Sasuke…" Sakura whispered weakly before collapsing onto the hard cement sidewalk under the platinum blonde's arms. The blonde let her slip to the ground.

The brunette stopped mid-punch, letting go of Sakura's long hair to turn toward the handsome onyx-eyed man walking toward them. "Hi, Sasuke-kun! What are you—"

"What did you _do_ to her?" Sasuke snarled menacingly at the blond and the brunette.

The blonde swiftly took her hands away from Sakura. "I-I wasn't doing anything!"

Sasuke turned to the brunette. "Why were you fucking with her?" He bent down to move Sakura up to a comfortable sitting position, still keeping his dangerous scowl on the brown-haired girl.

She scowled back. "Why does _she_"—the brunette pointed to the rosette in Sasuke's arms—"matter so much to _you_?"

"Because," Sasuke stated, now holding Sakura in his arms, bridal style, "Sakura's my _girlfriend_."

Sakura felt herself melt in his arms before she stiffened. '_It's just to get his fangirls away…just that…'_

The two females (and surprisingly the other male) gasped audibly.

"Wha—_What_?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the girls. "Are you guys deaf or just stupid?" Not waiting for their answer, the raven-haired man carried the rosette toward his car, opening the passenger seat door to lay her inside.

Sakura stirred. "Ne…Sasuke…kun?" She gave him a groggy stare, her emerald eyes dull and pained.

"Shut up and go to sleep," he simply said before sliding into the driver's seat. As they pulled out of the parking lot, Sakura laid her head on his shoulder. Sasuke stiffened from the close contact.

Sakura ignored it. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun," she whispered. The raven-haired man could hear the pain in her voice.

He kept driving. "Hn. I told you not to go out by yourself, stupid."

"I was…going out for a jog…" Sakura replied to him tiredly. "So…tired..."

Sasuke watched her out of the corner of his eye, watching her fall asleep on his shoulder as he drove her back to the dormitory. Her pink hair was messy and dirty from the fight and her clothes rumpled. He had been driving along toward his dorm when he had seen Sakura jogging down the lane, headphones on. She was supposed to have met him at the café an hour before, but when he had gotten there, there was no trace of her. So he had left. He had seen the fanboy of hers under the tree with those two other girls. At first, he had thought nothing of them. But then in his rearview mirror, he had seen them, watching Sakura make her way up the small hill. He had told himself not to turn back, to keep on going… but he couldn't. And, surprisingly, he was glad that he had. Sasuke took another glance at the pink-haired girl. She looked so tired. And the day wasn't even over yet.

Her pink hair was splayed all over leather seat and her mouth was slightly opened, letting in her breath. Her closed eyes and her soft breathing said that the poor rosette was asleep.

"Tch," Sasuke breathed out as he watched her. "Why do you have to be so annoying?" he said as he brushed a long strand of pink hair out of her face before resuming his drive to drop off the rosette.

It had been a long day for the both of them. And now, all they wanted was a little rest and a new day.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** Awesome! These chapters seem to keep getting longer and longer. Heh-heh. I was actually going to add a little bit more to this, but I really didn't want it to become a story within a story. Anyway, how'd you like this one? Leave me a review, okay?

Just think of me adding an extra line to this story where I'm in the story and getting beat up by the scary fangirls, screaming:

_**LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW!**_

The only way to make them stop pounding on me is to leave a review. :) Love ya!


	6. iThink I Hate You!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's Note:** GAH! Omigod! Chapter 6 already… Okay. This is just to say that I am really scared of spending another five chapters on one day… so I fastforwarded it two months. :D It will really help the plot! I promise! Oh, and a warning! There are going to be full-blown songs in here, so don't kill me if it's getting like really long! The lyrics are important! :D Anyways, onward with Chapter 6!

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 6**

**iThink I Hate You!**

**-xxx-**

Sun shone through the dorm windows of room 401 where three girls lay fast asleep. Time had flown by, already two months passing after the first day of college. The three of them had fallen into a sort of groove. A clock on a nightstand read large, red numbers: _6:59 A.M._ It ticked another minute. _7:00 A.M._ The alarm clock came alive, dancing on the nightstand and spewing out loud buzzing. Ino woke up, blonde hair tousled from sleep, and rubbed her eyes. She stared at the clock before giving it a good slam on the head. "Stupid alarm clock," she muttered, jumping out of bed to look at a calendar. It was a Wednesday. And Wednesday meant classes in the morning for her. She grumbled before walking across the room to a bed with a pink-haired girl sprawled across the bed sheets.

Ino tapped the girl's forehead with a manicured fingernail. "Yo, Forehead, wakey-wakey!"

The rosette stirred. "Wazzit?" she muttered sleepily before blinking a couple of times. That was when her iPod, sitting on another nearby nightstand, began spewing up wake-up music.

_**Wake up! Wake up! **_

_**On a Saturday night!**_

_**Could be New York, maybe Hollywood and Vine!**_

Sakura took up her iPod, pressing the dismiss button on the alarm clock app before sitting up in her bed and stretching her back muscles out. Then, she looked across the room to where a red-haired girl was heavily sleeping through all of the noisy buzzing and music. "Karin! Karin! Wake up!" Sakura called to her.

The redhead kept snoring.

Sakura sighed before kicking out the bed sheets and walking over to her frightening sort-of enemy. The rosette shook the girl's shoulder, hoping to coax her out of sleep. Instead, the sleeping redhead pushed her away in her sleep, muttering about how not a single person could get their beauty sleep these days.

Without a solution, Sakura looked helplessly toward her blonde friend.

Who had a very evil grin on her face.

Sakura took a few steps back. She knew that face when she saw it. "Ino?"

The blond didn't answer. Instead, Ino walked over to the redhead who was still snoring away, leaning in toward the sleeping girl's ear. Faintly, Sakura could hear her friend whispering, "Wake up, Karin," in a surprisingly convincing male voice, "I want you…"

The redhead instantly bolted out of bed. "Sasuke-kun?" she cried, looking frantically left and right for the said raven-haired man. Instead, all she could find was a laughing blond holding her stomach while she laughed at her roommate's misfortunate mistake.

Ino pointed at Karin, still holding her shaking stomach. "You fail, man!" The blond continued to laugh, unable to form any more sentences.

Karin scowled at her roommate, reaching for her glasses on another nightstand. "You bitch!" she cried, tossing a pillow at Ino. It hit her right in the face.

Sakura could see a small bitch fight coming on. "Uh, you guys, I don't think we should—"

"Shush, Forehead!" Ino shouted at her, rubbing at her face where the pillow had made its mark. "This is between me and Four-Eyes." She held a steady glare that was directed at the redhead that dared to toss a large pillow at her.

"Yeah, cram it, Pinky!" Karin snarled at the rosette before returning her attention to the blond that had rudely awakened her. They glared daggers into each others' skulls. Sakura stood there, feeling the tension and estrogen spike in the air.

Then, Ino, flipping her always perfect blond hair over her shoulder, shrugged before turning her back on the redhead, walking back to her bed.

"Hey, Blondy, I'm not—"

"Shut your trap, Four-Eyes," Ino snapped, turning her head around to glare some more at the redhead. "I don't have time to deal with you this morning!" The blond turned back toward her bed, folding the blankets and rearranging the pillows before grabbing a few clothes and slipping into the bathroom. The redhead and the rosette could hear the shower water running.

Sakura sighed, walking over to her closet to pick out some decent clothes for the day. Looking through shirt after shirt, the rosette's mind wandered back to the recent month that had passed. The first day of college had been absolutely rotten: complete with homicidal fangirls, crazy professors, and towers of books that could break your arms. Delicious. Oh, and did she mention that she had re-met the love of her life who was now using her to chase away those homicidal fangirls she was talking about? The rosette sighed. '_What a crappy first day…_' But, it had gotten better. _Slightly_. Ever since she started "going out" with Sasuke, the fangirls kept their distance. Even though they were still sending her death glares every once in a while. But, the most part was that she was safe from their murderous attempts. The only problem was…

'_If any of them found out, I'd be schnitzel…'_

That was the key thing that she had to do: make sure that the fangirls don't find out that she was just faking. Which was sort of easy if you thought about it. But… the only thing that Sakura wished that could change was the _using her_ part. Her heart squeezed when she thought of it. All this time, four long years she hadn't seen him… and now he chose to show up in her life when she thought she was over him. Not only that, but now he actually had the _audacity_ to _use_ her. What a fucking bastard.

"Hey, Pinky, what classes you got this morning?"

Karin's voice broke into Sakura's stream of consciousness. "Huh?"

The redhead rolled her eyes. Sakura hadn't noticed that Karin was already out of bed and currently drinking a cup of coffee. Her glasses were slightly askew and her hair wasn't yet combed, but that didn't seem to bother the girl. "I said what classes do you have this morning?"

The rosette let out a sigh. "Oh. Um…" she mentally went through her morning schedule. "Well, I have biochem and psychology the first two periods. Then later on I just have my GED classes." Sakura gave the redhead a weak smile.

That's what was sort of going on. After the first (frightening) day of college and her scarring experience with Karin, Sakura was trying to make amends and soften up the redhead's behavior toward her and eliminate any animosity that they were holding for each other. So far, all two months had gotten them was a sort of awkward relationship where all they said to each other was a "Hi", "Bye", or just ignored each other. And Sakura could feel that this whole thing was because of her relationship with Sasuke. I mean, Karin tolerated her and all… but Sakura could feel that Karin was still a little bitter that she, a small rosette, had "gotten the guy"… and that Karin was currently trying to get over him. Just a guess…

The only thing that Sakura really wanted was to be able to actually have a decent friendship with Karin. A relationship where they actually understood the other person's feelings and… _talked_.

The redhead adjusted her glasses and took a sip from her cup of coffee. "Oh." She looked away, toying with the edge of her coffee cup before turning back to the rosette that stood with her. "Uh, hey, Pinky?"

Sakura turned her head toward the redhead. "Yeah?"

Karin fidgeted with her coffee cup handle. "Um… could we… start over or something, Pinky? I mean… I know that the first day kinda got out of hand and all… and I really want to… to…"

"I get it, Karin," the rosette replied patiently, a small smile growing on her face. "I would really like that." She walked over to the taller girl and stuck out her hand. The pink-haired girl put on a genuine smile. "Hi. I'm Sakura."

For a moment or two, Karin stared at the outstretched hand. Then, slowly but surely, the redhead reached out and grasped the other girl's hand, an almost shy smile on her face. "Thanks. I'm Karin. Nice to meet you."

Sakura grinned before letting go of Karin's hand. "Okay then." She raced for something else to say. "Um, if you want, we could hang out or something after I'm done with all my classes. Maybe tomorrow or something? A little sleepover party?" She held her breath, waiting for the other girl's answer.

Karin adjusted her glasses before looking down at her nails. "Well, I do have a few things that I might have to move around…" A pause hung in the air while Karin took another sip of her coffee. Then, the redhead met her gaze with the rosette's, giving her a small smile. "Okay. Maybe a day or two from now." She started toward her bed, picking up the thrown pillow. Karin turned back toward Sakura, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you have some morning classes to get to?"

The rosette facepalmed herself. "Oh, shit!" Grabbing random clothes out of the closet, Sakura quickly pulled off her pajamas and frantically pulled on whatever she had in hand.

Done changing into her chosen clothes, Sakura glanced at herself in the mirror, tugging on her sweater and eyeing her dark blue jeans before tying up her hair and grabbing her shoes, knapsack, and (most importantly) her iPod. She walked towards the door and—looking behind her one last time to glance at the girl with glasses—closed the door behind her to head to her first class of the day.

**-xxx-**

"What's this picture?"

First period for the Konoha university students were already over. Everyone was already making their little journeys to their second class of the day.

A certain raven-haired man was holding an iPod with dangling pink headphones, looking through the pictures of the small, square-ish piece of technology. A pink-haired girl stood next to him, eyeing over his broad shoulder to see what exactly the young man was looking at.

Framed in the iPod's screen was a picture of a young pink-haired girl and a raven-haired boy dressed in summer clothing. Behind them was a blond boy who was draping both of his arms over his friends' shoulders, bringing the two of them closer together. The pink-haired girl had a small rosy blush painting her cheeks, her face close to the raven-haired boy's emotionless face. His hair was spiked rebelliously.

The rosette laughed. "Oh, that picture! That's a picture of when we went to the beach together." She smiled. "I think that was the first time that we actually spent time together as friends."

Sakura grabbed for a dangling ear-bud, listening to whatever song that was currently playing.

_**You make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed,**_

_**Sing like a bird, dizzy in my head,**_

_**Spin like a record, crazy on a Sunday night**_

Sakura giggled as she heard her favorite song through one of the pink headphones she held to her ear.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked monotonously, turning his head over to the rosette that walked beside him. They were already done with their first period stuff and were currently making a long trek across campus to psychology class.

The pink-haired girl smiled at him sheepishly. "Er, I was just laughing about this one song…"

"Oh? And what's it called?" the raven-haired man inquired.

The rosette looked up to him from where she walked by his side. "_Smile_ by Uncle Kracker." She smiled, thinking of a memory that was about twelve to thirteen years ago. "It's a really adorable song… reminds me of way back when I really liked this one guy…"

"Hn..." Sasuke grunted, picking an ear bud and placing it in his ear. He listened as he heard the second part of the chorus.

_**You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breath,**_

_**Shine like gold, buzz like a bee,**_

_**Just the thought of you can drive me wild,**_

_**Oh, you make me smile!**_

Having heard enough, the raven-haired man let go of the pink headphones, letting them dangle once more. "Hn. Who's the guy?" He turned his head to look at her, curiosity glinting in his onyx orbs.

Sasuke watched the petite rosette's face turn a deep pink, her cheeks flowing with color. "Um… it relates to this picture…" She took the iPod from him, running her finger along the touch pad until she finally found the picture that the raven-haired man was looking at before.

Sasuke scowled at it. "What do you mean—" Then, it hit him. The force of revelation struck him with such intensity that he nearly staggered backwards, a memory hitting him.

_(Flashback)_

_"Sasuke-kun!" screamed about twenty fangirls. It was a hot, sunny day at the beach and the class was on a field trip, enjoying themselves. A raven-haired boy of about eleven years of age dashed across the sandy surface of the beach, sprinting away from his obsessive fangirls. He ran toward an empty-looking cave, climbing the rocks and hiding within the cavernous walls. The fangirls dashed past the cave unknowingly. _

_ After confirming that the scary girls were gone, the raven-haired boy let out a breath of relief, turning to walk away… before he spied a familiar head of pink hair in the depths of the cavern. He approached it, careful not to make a sound as to disturb her. _

_ Instead of finding a crying girl that he had been so used to, he found Sakura, dancing in the middle of a small, rocky mini-island. She had her eyes closed and her lips moved, forming words that soared through the air and echoed off the cave walls to Sasuke's ears. _

_**You make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed, **_

_**Sing like a bird, dizzy in my head,**_

_**Spin like a record, crazy on a Sunday night,**_

_**You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe,**_

_**Shine like gold, buzz like a bee, **_

_**Just the thought of you can drive me wild**_

_The pinkette paused for a breath before breathing out the last phrase._

_**Oh, you make me smile…**_

_ She painted the last phrase of her small song with an illustration, a small grin painting her rosy lips. She gave herself a small giggle before pirouetting around in small circles, unaware of the raven-haired boy's presence. _

_ Sasuke stared at her, fascinated by the rosette's carefree radiance and happy song. '_I wonder who she was talking about…'_ the boy thought, slowly coming out of the shadows to approach the small rocky island that spanned only a few feet wide."Sakura?" he called out to her. He jumped over rocks to head over to her._

_ The rosette, startled by the boy's unknown presence, took a few steps back. Unknowingly, the girl lost her footing and fell… right into the unseemingly deep waters that surround the mini, rocky island she stood on. Sakura flailed around, desperately trying to stay afloat._

_ "Somebody! Help!" Sakura cried out. She didn't know how to swim. And quickly, the water was engulfing her as quickly as she flailed around. '_No one's here… no one's around… no one can _hear_ me!' _she thought, her mouth going under water_. 'I'm going to _die_…'

_That was when a dark-haired blur jumped into the water, sending waves splashing all over the rocky cave walls. It swam toward Sakura at an alarming speed. The young rosette was petrified in fear. What was it? A shark? Anything with extremely sharp teeth that could tear her to shreds?_

_ No. It was a certain raven-haired boy that she was thinking about, singing about until she had heard a sudden voice and lost her footing on the slippery rocks. His face was flushed with adrenaline and his once spiky hair laid flat against his head due to the salty waters of the ocean that made its way into the cave. Quickly Sasuke took the girl's arm and wrapped it around his neck, starting to swim in the direction toward the mini island. _

_ "Sa…Sasuke…kun?" Sakura whispered, too weak from the exhaustion that came from flailing in the waters. She shuddered from her near death experience._

_ The raven-haired boy laid her on the rocks gently, making sure that she was comfortable. Sakura didn't show any signs of water inhalation… or looked extremely faint. She just looked tired. Her shoulder-length pink hair lay splayed across the wet rocks, her face caked with the brine of the water and her clothes soaking wet. '_This all happened…because of _me_,' _thought young Sasuke as he continued to look for signs of trauma. "Are you okay?" he asked her. _

_ That was when she started to tremble violently. Sakura shook her head, tears trailing down her face and soaking her cheeks with more salty liquid. The rosette sat up in her place upon the rocks to place her head in her hands. Her shoulders shook from the force of her wracking sobs. She turned her head to look at the young boy who had saved her life just moments ago. _

_ Sasuke tried to look at those eyes, those gleaming, tear-filled emerald orbs, without looking away. Her face was full of fear, soaking with salty water and trails of salty tears. _

_ The rosette tried to calm herself. In between sobs, she stuttered out, "Th-Thank… y-you, S-Sa-suke-kun…" Needing some comfort, Sakura looked up at Sasuke once more, emerald eyes filled with the only salty water that could make Sasuke's insides clench. They pleaded for help, for comfort. For… _him_. _

_ Awkwardly, the boy opened his arms to her, letting her tackle him to the slippery rocks on the mini island. Sasuke held her, not stroking her hair, not telling her everything would be okay, not comforting her at all. He just held her and said, "I'm here… I'm here." _

_ It took a while, but Sakura's sobs died down eventually. She untangled herself from Sasuke's hold, putting herself a foot apart from him, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. "Ah… thank you, Sasuke-kun…" _

_ "Aa…" the raven-haired boy breathed out before replying with a, "Don't mention it."_

_ Silence enfolded the both of them, the two of them still sitting there, wondering what the hell had just happened. Sakura was singing… dancing… about _who_? And where the hell did Sasuke come from? Why the fuck was _he _here? Questions lay thick in the air. The tension from the questions became so great that the two of them burst out simultaneously asking:_

_ "What are you doing here?"_

_ "Who were you singing about?"_

_ The two of them stared at each other, thinking of the other's sudden outburst. Sakura spoke first. "What?"_

_ The raven-haired boy, giving her a serious look, answered with his previous question. "Who were you singing about?" _

_ The rosette, once staring at him for a few moments in confusion, immediately straightened up, a blush forming on her wet cheeks. She put her face in her hands. "Omigod…" she breathed out, her emerald eyes widening in shock. He had heard her singing… singing about _him_. Slowly, she brought her face out of her hands, looking up to meet Sasuke's emotionless gaze. Intimidated by the intensity of his onyx orbs, she looked back down at her hands. "Ah…that song is a favorite of mine. I was just singing it about this one boy. No one important." Sakura stole a glance at the raven-haired boy who still hadn't stirred from his seat. "What are _you_ doing here?" she asked._

_ Sasuke returned her gaze, onyx clashing with emerald. He averted his gaze, looking toward the now calm waters of the cave. "I was trying to get away from my fangirls…" _

_ The rosette, still looking at him, nodded in understanding before averting her own eyes from the raven-haired boy. Sasuke stood up, holding out a hand to help the pink-haired girl up from her sitting position. She gratefully grasped onto his hand, letting him pull her up to stand. She was still trembling from her fearful experience. Scared of falling in a second time, Sakura clung on to Sasuke's wet shirt tightly with small fists. She buried her head in the back of his shirt, holding him there with her. _

_ The raven-haired boy turned his head to look at Sakura who was currently dealing with a load of trauma. He sighed before telling her, "Sakura, let go of my shirt."_

_ Her fists only tightened. "Sasuke-kun, I'm—"_

_ "Let go," the raven-haired boy said more urgently. _

_ The rosette, struggling to slowly unclasp her hand from his damp shirt, finally managed to slip her fingers away, letting her arms drop to her sides."Sasuke-kun?"_

_ "Hm?"_

_ "Could you…" Sakura began hesitantly, "could you help me out of here?"_

_ Sasuke sighed before lending her a hand and walking toward some nearby rocks. The two slowly made it out of there, jumping on rock after rock, Sakura clutching tightly to his hands. Outside, they could smell the salty air and hear the sound of seagulls overhead. The sun shone brightly in the blue sky. _

_ The rosette and the raven-haired boy stood there, enjoying the smells and sights, forgetting that their hands were joined. They didn't notice a blond boy sneaking up from behind. It wasn't until they felt a hand on their shoulder that pushed them together and a face that squeezed in between theirs that they realized Naruto (that rascal of a blond boy) had managed to push them together, their faces close. A flash of bright light blinded them_.

_Both of them blinked before realizing what had just happened: Naruto and one of his other accomplices had taken a picture of them. The three of them. The rest of the day at the beach was spent with Sakura awkwardly looking after Sasuke while he dashed across the beach trying to sock his best friend in the face. The funny part was that Sasuke still had that emotionless face plastered on throughout the whole entire time after his little time with Sakura in the cave._

_(End Flashback)_

The two of them had stopped walking. Sasuke stood there, struggling to keep his emotionless expression still plastered on to his face. '_That was her traumatic experience… how she became hydrophobic…'_ he thought blankly. Then, remembering what he had asked her earlier, Sasuke turned to his pink-haired friend before saying, "Ah, so the guy is just…someone from the past…" The raven-haired man had a feeling that it was him. But, knowing his childhood acquaintance's feelings, he chose not to blurt it outright.

The rosette, oblivious to the fact that he already had a notion, nodded hesitantly, thinking that he didn't know that she was talking about him. But, with her blunt feelings and actions, wasn't it obvious enough that it was _him_ that she was talking about?

Sasuke gave a snort of a half-laugh that could only be done by him. "I kind of like that song," he stated plainly, starting to walk again toward the now visible building that held their psychology class. "But it's not my favorite."

Sakura turned her head to look at him curiously. "What _is_ then?"

The raven-haired man thought about it for a moment. Then, satisfied with what he seemed to pull out of his head, replied monotonously, "_I'd Rather Be With You_ and _Green Eyes_."

The rosette laughed at him. "Sasuke-kun, that's two songs." She gave him a small smile, keeping her pace with his.

"Tch. Annoying," Sasuke muttered, flipping his midnight hair out of his eyes. "If you heard them you'd know why I chose them." The raven-haired man turned to look at the female that walked beside him. "I'm going to be playing it to a class today."

The rosette raised her eyebrows. "Really? Which class?"

Smirk. "Can't tell you."

Sakura puffed out her cheeks. "Sasuke-kun!"

A small session of intense whining and asking from Sakura and one word answers from Sasuke (doesn't he have anything else in his vocabulary besides "Hn" and "Aa"?). Sakura and the raven-haired man next to her were unaware of a presence behind them.

Up until a familiar brunette tapped the rosette on the shoulder.

Startled, Sakura turned around, meeting the gaze of the frightening brunette that had ambushed her (with a help from her friends) just two months ago. The pink-haired girl stiffened at the sight of her. "Could we help you with anything?" she asked calmly, hoping that she came off as cool and collected. However, the quiver in her voice gave everything away. Sakura kept her body tense, ready to defend herself just in case she needed to.

The rosette, expecting a sucker punch to the jaw, was surprised when she saw the brunette smile and extend a hand. "Hi, I'm Reina," she said amiably, flipping her bangs out of her brown eyes. "Sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I really hope that my first impression wasn't that bad." Her hand was still extended, a hopeful sign of friendship. Sincerity seemed to shine through her chocolate eyes. "No hard feelings?"

**'**_**First impression? You mean ganging up on me with your friends and beating the crap out of me? No, of **_**course**_** I wouldn't hold any hard feelings against you!' **_thought Sakura's inner self.

Ignoring her Inner Sakura, the rosette gave the brunette a smile before clasping her hand and giving her a firm handshake. "No hard feelings."

The brunette smiled. "Awesome! Oh, and before I forget..." Reina reached into her bag, pulling out an ivory envelope. She handed it to Sakura. "This is an invitation. I'm having a big party tomorrow night, so I'm just wondering if you wanted to come."

Sakura stared at the envelope. A party? She had been to a few before, but never one that was _big_. And big parties always had something to drink; not just "drink" drinks, but _drinks_—hard alcohol and beer and wine. Sakura had taken drinks before (oh, the memories of grad night), and she had sworn that she would never drink again. But, seeing how this was a good way to get rid of any tensions she had with the Sasuke worshippers, the rosette had to accept. I mean, what was the worst that could happen?

Making her decision, the rosette looking Reina in the eye, nodding determinedly. "I'm going. Thanks." She gave a small smile.

Reina's grin grew larger. "Awesome!" She started off toward her next class. "See you tomorrow, Sakura-san!" And with that, she raced off, leaving a slightly shocked Sakura and a confused Sasuke.

**-xxx-**

The brunette met up with her platinum blond friend. She snickered, an evil grin forming on her face.

The blond looked at her. "So, everything according to plan, I'm guessing?"

Reina's sadistic smile grew. "Oh, yeah." She gave her friend a smile. "She's going to the party, Akiko!" The Sasuke worshipper gave a squeal of glee, a plan forming in her head.

Akiko raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at her friend. "What's so great about that?"

The brunette threw her head back to laugh at her friend. "Oh, dear Akiko-chan," she spoke, waving a hand in her face, "this gives us a chance to prove that Sakura isn't really going out with our dear Sasuke-kun. In fact," Reina explained excitedly, "this is a great way." Her diabolical smile was back in place. "It's public humiliation. It's _perfect_."

Akiko flipped her blond hair over her shoulder before examining her manicured nails and adjusting her bag. "Whatever you say, Reina. It's your plan, not mine."

With a evil smile on her face and diabolical plan in her head, the brunette walked with her friend to her next class, plotting the next move as if she were playing a chess game. It was only a matter of time…

**-xxx-**

The bell had already rung and Sasuke and Sakura had made it just in time. Thankfully, the professor was late coming in and (Sasuke sighed in relief) had found another target to do a flying side-kick to the face. Today was just another lecture about classical conditioning and the project. Nothing was new yet. Not that they knew of anyway…

The rosette sat there the majority of class, staring at the invitation she had just received from the brunette that had showed her ill behavior just two months before. She felt a smile grow on her face. She was really making progress, really making new friends. Sakura felt a fluttery feeling dancing in her stomach.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was utterly confused. Why the hell would you beat up someone and then give them an invitation to your own party? It just didn't make sense! Unless…

The raven-haired man raised an eyebrow at the sudden thought that struck him. '_Unless the girl is planning something else…'_ His hand held a tighter grip on his pencil. That was it. That was the only logical explanation for a fangirl inviting his "girlfriend." It was to have another shot at hurting her… another way at harming her. Sasuke clenched his teeth as he squeezed the pencil in his hand.

'_You have to protect her… _protect_ her,_' whispered a voice in his head.

And it was right (sadly). Sasuke had to. What else could happen if he was there? I mean, Sakura was already clumsy enough by all means, not to mention totally oblivious and naïve to whatever was happening around her. Which meant that she was vulnerable to those kinds of plans. For a book smart girl, she sure wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed…

Sasuke saw images flashing through his mind, of what could have happened if he hadn't stopped the girls from beating Sakura up, if he hadn't pushed her out of the car's way…

'_She wouldn't be here right now… and I'd be the one to blame…'_

The raven-haired man slammed his fist on the table, breaking his mechanical pencil. "Sakura, you're not going to the party."

The rosette tore her gaze away from the party invitation to gape at him, her green eyes widening. Then, realizing the raven-haired man's words, Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "Excuse me?"

They both knew that the whole class by now was staring at them. But right now, all that mattered was this conversation. And, the class, being very perceptive, knew that they should just wait, watch, and listen to whatever hell was about to break loose.

Sasuke kept his eyes on her, returning her glare. "You aren't going to the party."

The pink-haired girl stared at him, gaping at him. Then, she opened her mouth to return at him. Sputtering from anger and embarrassment, Sakura retorted, "Who do you think you _are_ telling me where I can and can't go?"

The raven-haired man narrowed his eyes at her. "You aren't allowed to go," he stated simply. "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be."

Sakura stood up in her seat, slamming her fist on the table. "Dammit, Sasuke, you aren't my father! Why do you want to ruin my life?"

"Hey, you two, calm down now!" Gai-sensei called out to them, now turning away from his writing on the white board to look at them.

The raven-haired man ignored the psychology professor. He snapped. "Ruin your life?" he posed, lowly at first. "_Ruin _yourlife?" The raven-haired man rose from his seat, gazing down at her in absolute fury. "I've been putting _up_ with you, helping you." By now, Sasuke had grabbed her by the shoulders, squeezing them tightly and looking right into her eyes, anger and annoyance shining in his onyx orbs. "And _this _is the shit you're giving me?" He shook her hard, her pink hair brushing against his cheek. Sasuke let go of her, still keeping his gaze on the rosette who was still staring at him with a look of extreme shock and disbelief.

"You've been the one who's been ruining _my_ life. And I don't give you shit like that." He sneered at her, poking her in the forehead. "_You_ were the one that made me lose the opportunity to go to America to study in Harvard."

Poke. "_You_ were the one that decided to make us go to the bar on grad night."

_Poke_. "_You're_ the one who's getting us both into this mess!" Sasuke snarled before adding the finishing blow. "And _you're_ the most annoying person I've ever known."

This was too much. Sakura had never seen Sasuke act like this. Never. Not when she had known him when they were little; not when she knew him in middle school; not even in high school when she was going through all her hormones and busy stage and annoyed him to death did she see him like _this_. The stress broke down on her, the horrible first day, the pain in her heart that throbbed for him, and the tirade that Sasuke had just shoved in her face.

Sakura started to cry. The tears dripped down her face, her sobs wracking her body and she held her face in her hand. She knew that everyone in the class was staring at her. But she didn't fucking care. Nothing really mattered anymore. Not when Sasuke, the man she had known since she was a little girl, didn't accept her, didn't like her… didn't…

Didn't _love_ her. The rosette choked on another sob. Then, she decided to do something drastic. Something she had never done before…

"I hate you."

The raven-haired man, once silent and staring, growled at her, "What was that?"

The pink-haired girl grew bolder. "I fucking _hate_ you." She lifted her head that once hung in pain and shame to gaze into Sasuke's onyx eyes. Sakura needed to do this. She wasn't going to let anyone, not even the raven-haired man himself, get away with publicly humiliating her, taking away her dignity. So she watched in satisfaction as Sasuke's eyes faintly widened.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. "Listen, you brat—"

"No, Sasuke-_kun_," She sneered the suffix hatefully, "_you_ fucking listen." She poked him in the chest. Hard. "Don't you _dare_ blame that incident on me. You have not a single fucking right to say anything like that."

The fangirls in the room gasped.

Sakura ignored them. She was about to deliver the final blow. "You know what, Sasuke? If you think I'm so annoying, then I'll make it easy on you: _we're over_." Again, the girls in the room gasped. I mean, who would break up with a sex god like _the_ Uchiha Sasuke? Sakura leaned up to Sasuke's ear to whisper, "Go find yourself another fake girlfriend. I'm _done_." Then, gathering her stuff when the bell sounded, the pink-haired girl walked out of the room as calmly as she could to her universal art class, leaving a group of happy (and shocked) fangirls that were now sending a certain raven-haired man predatory gazes.

Sasuke stood there, ignoring the many stares he was getting from his group of fans. He looked after the pink-haired girl. The raven-haired man felt a twinge of guilt tug at his heart (did he even _have_ one?). He hadn't meant to go _that_ far. It was just…

'_She's so stupid…' _Sasuke thought, sighing in exasperation. '_Why can't she just tell that I'm doing this for her…'_ Wait. Backtracking here. _The_ Uchiha "Block of Ice, Doesn't Give a Fuck About Anyone" Sasuke actually _cares_? The world seems to be ending…

A loud chorus of "Sasuke-kun!" echoed in the room, bring the raven-haired man out of his thoughts and back in the psychology room that a group of fangirls were in. '_This is going to be _bad…_'_

As if on cue, the scary group of obsessive Sasuke worshippers stampeded toward the raven-haired man, screaming out shrieks of "Sasuke-kuns!"

On the outside of the psychology class, Sasuke could hear the students already gossiping about what had just happened.

"Did you hear? Sasuke and Sakura _just_ broke up!"

"Oh, my good_ness_, that is a total, like, shocker!"

"Yeah, and I hear it was just over a stupid party invitation. Can you believe it? He wouldn't let her go to a fucking _party_!"

Someone scoffed. "Talk about total cling factor."

The raven-haired man sprinted across the campus. '_I need to get her back…'_ Sasuke thought, jogging quickly toward the building that he was supposed to head for. '_But how?'_ The question pounded inside his head all the way to his destination. Sasuke was supposed to be heading to the back of the universal music class to meet the universal arts teacher who had kindly (no, not really) asked him to play a song for her class to open up the new unit. And right now, he had to do so. '_Or else the teacher will _kill _me…_' So, pushing the thought of a certain pink-haired girl that always seemed to annoy him to the ends of the earth, Sasuke twisted the doorknob to the backstage to meet the art teacher.

**-xxx-**

Sakura sat down in her seat, brushing out the random strands of pink hair that hung in her face. She sat near the front, right in front of the teacher… who was currently not here. What a spot, ne? The pinkette sighed, taking out the plan that the teacher had laid out for the class. Their first unit had been art and art history. Now, they were moving on to a new unit today: _instruments_. A few days ago, the teacher had announced that someone was coming in to play a song for them to open up the new unit. And everyone was on edge for today. It wasn't everyday that someone came in to a college class to play.

Finally, everyone in class, once buzzing about Reina's awesome party that was going on tomorrow night and how the rosette had _just_ broken up with _the_ hottest of all hotties, quieted down when they saw the universal art teacher coming out from the backstage door.

The teacher smiled. "Alrighty, class! Today, as we all know, we have a visitor who is going to play a song he has chosen for this very special day. It's apparently one of his favorites. But! That's not the point!" She gave the class a small smile. "The point is that this performance is going to open up the next unit for us today. However"—the teacher raised a finger to prove another point—"our visitor isn't exactly ready. So…"

Sakura sank lower in her seat. The professor was picking out a victim to play an instrument in front of the class. And Sakura had already demonstrated some artistic skills in the beginning of the year. '_Please don't pick me… please…'_

But, of course, the Heavens hated her. The professor turned her gaze to look directly at the pink-haired girl in front of her. "Sakura! _You _are going to entertain us for a while." The teacher smiled before waving her hands across a few instruments behind her. "Pick one of these instruments to play for us. Maybe even sing a song!"

Sakura, dragging herself up to the stage, walked over to the piano. She twiddled her fingers. "Ah, I only know one song…"

"That's perfect!" cried the professor, ushering for her to sit down and play.

'_Well,' _the rosette thought, '_I guess I have to.'_ Sitting down on the bench, Sakura placed her hands on the keys, positioning them _just_ right. Taking a deep breath, the rosette sealed her fate… and started to play, the music echoing around the room.

**-xxx-**

"Shit!" a raven-haired man cursed. Sasuke was sitting in the back of the stage, tuning his guitar. He looked at the cut that formed on his ring finger, the blood oozing out. The raven-haired man grimaced. He was supposed to be on stage right now, playing a song and then getting the hell out of there. '_So much for that…'_ Sasuke sucked on his bloodied finger before standing up and adjusting the guitar strap on his shoulder. He walked toward the door that lead to the classroom and turned the knob. Just as he was about to go on stage, the raven-haired man heard the sound of piano keys being played, a simple tune coming up. He looked upon the stage, finding a head of pink hair he knew all too well. She was playing the piano. Chords were plunked out in perfect harmony.

Then, she opened her mouth to sing. "He drowns in his dreams… An exquisite extreme I know. He's as damned as he seems. And more heaven than a heart could hold…" She pounded harder on the keys. "And if I try to save him, my whole world would cave in. It just ain't right…" Her fingers played softer on the keys. "No, it just ain't right…"

Sasuke could tell that she was going into the chorus. Listening closely to the music, he heard something, something resonating behind the lyrics from the pinkette's heart.

Sakura took a breath, her fingers playing chord to chord. "Oh, and I don't know… I don't know what he's after. But he's so beautiful… such a beautiful disaster." She took another breath, her emerald eyes shining in the light. "And if I could hold on through the tears and the laughter…. Would it be beautiful, or just a beautiful disaster?"

The raven-haired man, now sitting down in a seat by the students, gazed upon her. What was she saying in her song?

"He's magic and myth… as strong as what I believe. A tragedy with… more damage than a soul should see." Sakura turned her eyes toward the crowd, capturing Sasuke's eyes instantly. She didn't look away. "But do I try to change him? So hard not to blame him. Hold me tight… baby, hold me tight…"

Sakura took in a breath, keeping her gaze at him. "Oh, and I don't know… I don't know what he's after. But he's so beautiful…such a beautiful disaster…" Her hands pumped at the keys. "And if I could hold on through the tears and the laughter….Would it be beautiful, or just a beautiful disaster?"

The tune changed from the wondering tune to the determined, the chords pounded into the piano more urgently, more desperately. "I'm longing for love and the logical. But he's only happy hysterical. I'm searching for some kind of miracle… Waited so long… waited so long…"

The revelation hit him with a force that nearly knocked him over in his chair. '_Sakura's… singing about _me_…'_ It was about him. Right? Sasuke's thoughts led him back to way back when they were young. She had been there by his side, from the time when he had lost his parents and his brother to now in college. She didn't just become his "girlfriend" because she wanted the fame, the attention, or to get the fangirls off her back. Sakura did it for _him_. Like how he was doing it for _her_.

Resolutely standing up from the crowd and ignoring the audible gasps from the girls in the room, Sasuke spoke out before Sakura could complete her song. "Ma'am, I'm ready to go up there." He was going to do this, to get her back to help the both of them out. It was the only way.

The professor, forgetting that he was present, snapped out of her trance that Sakura's beautiful music has caused, ushering him on to the stage. "Of course, Sasuke. Come on up here and play us a beautiful song." She turned back to Sakura who was sitting at the piano, trying to glare at the raven-haired man. But Sasuke knew that behind those glares were tears, waiting to be shed. The professor gave Sakura a kind smile. "Thank you, Sakura. That was beautiful."

Sakura gave her a quiet sign of thanks before asking her professor, "Would it be okay if I just sat here on stage?" She quickly added, "Please?"

The professor gave her a swift nod (apparently not even paying anymore attention to her) before dashing off the stage. Sakura could hear the fangirls in the crowd growling.

Sasuke sat on a stool, positioning his hands on the guitar. He stared out into the crowd before doing the most unexpected thing. Sasuke turned his entire body in Sakura's direction, facing her completely and gazing into her eyes resolutely. He spoke out loud to the crowd, turning only his head to face them. "I'll be playing a song called _Green Eyes_." Turning his head back to the rosette, Sasuke placed his hands on the guitar and began to play one of the oddest songs Sakura had ever heard.

After a few strums on the guitar, Sasuke began. "Honey, you are a rock… upon which I stand. And I come here to talk… I hope you understand…" He continued the string of strums on his guitar, still gazing the rosette in her emerald eyes. "That green eyes… yeah, the spotlight, shines upon you… and how could anybody deny you?" Sasuke paused for a while, continuing the same string of chords he played. "I came here with a load… and it feels so much lighter now I've met you… And honey, you should know that I can never go on without you… Green eyes…" Another pause and guitar strummings echoed through the room.

He took another breath. "Honey, you are the sea upon which I float… and I came here to talk… I think you should know…"

Sakura held her breath. '_Green eyes…'_ She touched her face. '_Just like mine…'_ The rosette smiled at the thought before hearing the man in front of her, the love of her life sing a song for her. " That green eyes, you're the one that I wanted to find…" Sasuke stretched out the note. "And anyone who tried to deny you must be out of their mind. `Cause I came here with a load and it feels so much lighter since I've met you..." Sasuke took another breath, watching the pink-haired girl dry her eyes. "And honey, you should know that I could never go on without you… Green eyes… green eyes…" Slowly, Sasuke pulled the song to a stop, repeating the first line that had started the song. "Honey, you are a rock…upon which I stand…"

Sasuke sat there on his stool, gazing at Sakura, boring his own onyx eyes into her emerald ones, the ones that he had sung about. In the crowd, a small applause began, building into a larger applause, until there was a standing ovation in the class. Even the fangirls stood up clapping.

Sakura stood up from the piano bench to walk over to the raven-haired man that kept her gaze. She wiped at her eyes unconsciously before giving him a small but genuine smile. "Ah… that was a great song."

"Aa…"

"Don't you have anything in your vocabulary, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn."

The rosette pouted at him. "Sasuke-kun!"

The raven-haired man gave her his famous smirk before leaning up to whisper in her ear. "You're back to helping me get rid of my fangirls?"

Sakura pulled her ear away from his mouth, sending him a smile that she only saved for him. "Only if you let me go to the party."

Sasuke scowled at her, scoffing. "Sakura—"

"Please?" She gave him the best puppy dog face she could muster. '_C'mon…c'mon…'_

"Hn. Fine. But be careful." The raven-haired man plastered on one of his practiced emotionless masks. "Now are you going to help me or not?"

Sakura smiled, giddy at the fact that they were both over the little drama that had erupted between them earlier. "Fine..." For show, the rosette shouted out, "I accept your apology."

The crowd erupted in a chorus of "Awwww"s.

Someone yelled, "Give him an acceptance kiss!"

Rolling her eyes at them, Sakura leaned in and gave the stoic young man a sweet kiss on the lips before pulling away to the sound of cheering and roaring of the crowd. Sasuke wrapped an arm around the small girl's waist, pulling her in toward him. But, of course, it was _only_ for show.

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:**__Alright! 18 pages, yo! I've gotten three songs for this chapter thanks to the help of my dear friend Karli. :D She actually went out and made me a playlist for my story. I've used three of them so far (and gotten obsessed with one). I'm using the last one that I really liked for last. Best for last! :D I didn't exactly know how to end this either…

Maybe I should have added a line that had you and me in the classroom after the two had kissed and stuff, where I'd be screaming at everyone in the class, "LEAVE A REVIEW FOR MY STORY!" and make me run off. You'd be there writing me a review… right? Love it, hate it, or just want to say something—leave a review! :D


	7. iParty: Part 1

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's Note**: Alright. I'm just going to say this so that I won't forget at the end! (laughs) This chapter was all made possible because of my friend Laelia's inspirational ideas. Actually, it was because of her mom's Asian Mom Rant (we all know what that means), but that's not the point! The point is that Laelia inspired me and I dedicate this chapter to her. :)

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 7**

**iParty (Part 1)**

**-xxx-**

"Damn it!" Sakura punched the computer screen. It was the afternoon of a Thursday, the day of the big party that everyone on campus was raving about since yesterday. It was a day off for all of the students on campus because of some big meeting between the professors, so everyone was just chilling for the day and waiting for evening to come in order to celebrate what Americans would call "Hallow's Eve". The rosette was in her room with her two other roommates, Ino chatting on the phone with her new boyfriend (who knew she could pick them up that fast?) and Karin, laying there on her bed, tossing a pillow up and down. Sakura cursed again. "Fuck! There goes all my songs!" She stared at the blank screen that had once held iTunes and Limewire. The rosette sighed. '_Not like it's the first time it's happened…'_ She continued to stare at the computer. '_Well, at least it can't get any worse than this…_' The laptop, once running and healthy, sputtered out sparks and smoke before dying out all together. "Aw, man!" Sakura just _had_ to jinx herself, didn't she?

First her iTunes and Limewire die out on her… and now _this_? Sakura sighed for what seemed to be the millionth time. "Guess the Limewire and iTunes crashed my software…" the rosette muttered, checking her laptop.

"It's worse than you think, Pinky," Karin called from her bed, still tossing a pillow up and down. She kept her eyes on the white, soft cushion while she spoke to the pink-haired girl that sat at her desk. "Your whole laptop seemed to have died." The redhead sat up from her little game. "You need to get a new one."

Sakura whined. "Where am I going to come up with six hundred U.S. dollars to buy a new one?"

Ino, oblivious to her friend's misfortune, hung up the phone and squealed fangirlishly. She jumped out of her seat and did a happy dance. "Oh. My. GOODNESS!" Another squeal. "Guess what, Forehead?"

"What?" the rosette drawled out, still a little irritated at her computer. She banged it on the screen. "Stupid laptop… technology thing!" Of all the times to be technologically impaired…

The blond ignored the poor rosette's problem. "Shika-kun is taking me out on a date tonight!" Another fangirlish squeal came out of her mouth before she looked at her watch. It read ten o'clock, the sun still shining brightly outside, rising to its peak. "Oh!" Ino cried out, dashing across the room to grab her small red purse. "I have to go! Don't want to be late for my little study date with Shikamaru!" At the door, the blond waved to her two roommates. "See ya!" And with that, Ino disappeared down the hallway to meet her boyfriend.

Karin sat up in her bed, sighing in relief. "Man, I thought she'd _never_ leave…"

Sakura let out a small giggle behind her hand before turning back to her computer, still dead. "Lucky that I got my iPod out in time…" she muttered, caressing her treasured piece of technology she could still use.

The redhead, now sitting up in her bed and playing with the CD player on her nightstand, gave a very un-ladylike snort before resuming her attention to the CD player. She slipped a small CD in, pressing the play button. Alternative rock spewed out of the speakers.

_**I used to be love drunk, but now I'm hung over**_

_**I loved you forever! Forever is over!**_

_**We used to kiss all night; now it's just a barf fight**_

_**We're all going crazy, say hello to goodbye (Oh, yeah!)**_

As the music continued on its little path to completion, Sakura sat up straighter at her desk. She spun around on her swervable chair. "Is that…_Love Drunk_ by BoysLikeGirls?"

The redhead smirked, adjusting her glasses and turning the volume down very slightly. "Sure is. I'm playing this in celebration of…" Her dark eyes widened a fraction. "Oh!" She jumped on her bed, excitement on her face. "I almost forgot to tell you, Pinky!" By now, Karin was shaking with… whatever emotion a Karin could express that resembled excitement. Her glasses slipped down her nose, but she pushed them back up into place. Her grin grew wider. "Guess what?"

The pink-haired girl, already giving up on fixing her laptop, raised an eyebrow at her. "What is it, Karin?" What was this? The ever frightening "Shoot You Dead" redhead named _Karin_ was actually _talking _to _her_? Could the world be ending?

"I—" Karin's voice trembled with emotion, "—am _over_ Sasuke!" The redhead squealed, mirroring Sakura's blond friend perfectly.

Sakura's jaw dropped open. '_No fucking way…_' How the hell could Karin just… get over Sasuke (the one that everyone knows as the ultimate Lord of the Sex Gods, Icicle that would freeze you to death type of guy that every girl would run screaming after) Uchiha? "Really?" asked Sakura out loud. "How'd you do that?"

The redhead shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. However, her eyes gave away everything. "I… I found another guy…" Karin said, surprisingly shy. Her cheeks flushed in a soft hue of pink before she turned to face the pink-haired girl. "His name's Suigetsu." She blushed again. "We… met at the café the other day and we just…" Karin fought for words, waving her hands weirdly in the air. "…_clicked_." That was when Karin did the most unexpected gesture, one that practically made Sakura choke on her own spit in surprise. The redhead _smiled_ at her. _Smiled_ at her! It's official… the world was going to end.

Sakura froze. '_It's finally over…'_ the rosette thought while a smile was slowly rolling over her face. '_It's _finally_ over_.' Sakura returned the redhead's grin. "That's… that's _great_, Karin!" Her smile grew bigger. "That's terrific! I'm so happy for you!"

Karin nodded, the unusual smile still shining genuinely on her face. Slowly though, it began to turn serious, her grave expression making her seem older and almost wiser. "Sakura," she said, "I want you to know that Sasuke's hurt me a lot over the years." The redhead turned her gaze away from Sakura. "He's hurt me so much… and… being your new…" Karin struggled to say the next word, her tone unbelievable because of the past events that had happened two months ago, "_friend_… I want you to be happy." The redhead now made herself look at the rosette, determination gleaming in her eyes. "I want you to tell me anything. The truth." Hesitantly, Karin added cheesily, "because the truth is all that matters to me."

The words threw a brick to Sakura's conscience.

Inner Sakura started to laugh nervously. '_**Heh-heh… Four-Eyes wants the truth… wait till she finds out that we really **_**aren't**_** going out with Sasuke-kun…**_

Sakura pushed that unpleasant thought away. '_What she doesn't know won't hurt her…'_ the rosette told herself. All she had to do was keep the truth hidden until the fangirls gave up on Sasuke and she was safe and sound. How hard could that be? She already went two months like that. Surely she would be able to do it for a longer period of time.

The rosette's phone started vibrating in her pocket, breaking her train of thoughts. Sakura pulled it out, checking the caller ID. Printed in bold, prominent letters, was the name of a certain raven-haired man:

_U C H I H A S A S U K E _

Sakura flipped open her small black cell. "Hello?"

"Sakura," breathed a low, baritone voice that the rosette knew all too well, "get over here right now. Bring a swimsuit and a towel. Call when you get here."

"Wait, where—"

"The pool. Now hurry." An audible click was heard in the receiver. Sakura groaned. "Stupid prick and his freakin' demands…" she muttered, hurriedly scurrying across the room to her drawer of clothes to pull out a small, green one piece bathing suit and a clean white towel.

The redhead looked after the pink-haired girl, dashing to and from one place of the dorm to another, watching her new friend grab a bag and some sunscreen. "Sasuke called you?"

Sakura sighed, grabbing some slippers out of her closet. "Yeah…" She walked over toward the door, iPod in hand before turning back to look at her new redhead friend. The rosette smiled at Karin. "I'm really happy for you Karin," she stated genuinely. "I promise to let you in on my problems if I have any."

The redhead, smugly satisfied, adjusted her glasses before returning a, "Every problem." Her expression returned to the seriousness that had claimed it just moments ago. "And, Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me everything. Not just the problems, but the things that I need to know. The _truth_," Karin emphasized again. Her steady gaze seemed to burn holes through her head, only more in concern rather than in the animosity that Sakura had always been so used to getting from Karin. The only difference was that the steady gaze of concern seemed to burn deep into Sakura's soul.

'_She won't be able to know the truth without getting hurt…'_ Out loud, the rosette forced herself to smile. "Don't worry, Karin." She looked at her cell phone, checking the time. "Crap! Gotta run! See you later!" And with that, Sakura dashed out of the dorm, leaving her newly made friend alone with herself and a phone that tempted her to reach out and call her new beloved Suigetsu.

But, instead of reaching for the phone to call him, Karin reached over to her nightstand and plucked out a small, ivory envelope with her name neatly printed squarely in the middle. Next to Karin's name, were the words:

_From Toshiko Reina_

_Cell Number: (075) 967-684-3451_

_When: Thursday, October 31__st __at 8:30 PM – 12:00 AM_

_Where: 62145 Yukari Lane near Konoha's campus _

The redhead adjusted her glasses, reaching out to the nightstand once again to grab a small, stylish orange cell. She punched in the area code and the ten digits that came after it, holding it up to her ear to wait for the other line.

A click came up on the other line. "Hello, this is Reina. And who am I speaking to at the current moment?"

Karin gritted her teeth. "Reina, this is Karin. I—"

"Oh! Karin!" squealed the known brunette on the other line. "How are you? What's up? Have you gotten any great ideas this time on smashing that stupid—"

"I don't have any," the redhead stated bluntly, her brow furrowing together in annoyance. "It's just that—"

The brunette sighed, the sound of her breath leaving her lungs echoing into Karin's eardrums from the receiver. "Oh, well… Oh, are you going to my party tonight? I hear that you got yourself a new honey—"

"Damn it, Reina, shut up so I can fucking talk!" That felt better. Much better. Sometimes the assertive way is the better way. Karin took in a deep breath and exhaled. She pushed her fiery bangs out of her face. "Okay," she breathed out. "Are you listening?"

Silence was the listener on the receiving side for a moment until Karin her Reina's voice again. "Yeah."

The redhead sighed in relief. "Okay, then…" Karin bit her lip, actually nervous for the first time in a long period of time. How was she going to tell Reina, this scary fangirl that was up there with Karin when the redhead used to be obsessed with Sasuke and wanted to murder the pink-haired girl she was now growing closer and closer to every passing day, that _she_, the Sasuke fan club creator herself, wanted the club to stop hunting down the pink-haired obstacle to Sasuke's heart?

And everyone had thought that it would only happen when pigs would fly. Speaking of flying pigs… '_Would tossing Ino out of the window count?_' Karin smirked before realizing that Reina was actually _talking_.

"You know, Karin, if you just called me up to make me lose my minutes, I'm—"

"Wait!" Karin took a deep breath. '_I can do this_." Squaring her shoulders and adjusting her glasses in a smart fashion, the redhead said into the phone, "I don't want us to go after Sakura anymore. She's actually not that bad."

"_WHAT_?"

Karin pulled her cell phone away from her ear. Why did scary fangirls have such loud voices? '_Oh, right… practice from screaming 'Sasuke-kun!' all of the time…'_ The redhead placed the orange cell phone back into place. "You and your friends aren't allowed to follow the couple around campus. Don't bother them. Is that clear?"

"But, Karin—"

Karin's voice went dangerously low. "Are you questioning my authority as head of the Sasuke Fan Club?" On the other side of the line, the redhead could audibly hear the brunette gulp down a nervous breath. She smirked.

Reina's voice went back on the line. "Alright, then…." She relented, seemingly defeated. Cheerfully after, she chirped, "Well, then I guess I'll see you and your new honey at the party! Toodles!"

_Click_. The line went dead on the other side. The redhead pressed the end call button, adding the number to her contacts list as _Toshiko Reina_. Then, finished with the duty, Karin ran through her list of contacts, typing in one sole letter: _S_. Under the _S_ read the name _Suigetsu_. She smiled, pressing the send call button and placing the orange cell up to her ear. The other line picked up. "Hello? Suigetsu? Would you like to come with me to a party tonight?"

**-xxx-**

A large mansion stood near the edge of a beach, its towering walls and columns intimidating. Inside, a long, spiraling stairway reached up to a third floor. There were at least ten bedrooms inside the castle-like abode, a fabulous kitchen, dozens of bathrooms, and, near the kitchen room and many guest rooms and the ballroom, stood a large bar where a certain brunette say playing with her cell phone.

"Alright. Be there, got that? We can't afford to mess this up," said the brunette into her black phone. "Okay. Toodles!"

Reina snapped her black cell phone closed, her manicured nails smoothing out the surface. She had a small, amused smirk playing at her lips. The brunette ran a hand through her straightened locks before placing her phone back onto the marble table. Behind the marble table stood a large shelf of hard liquor; the bartender stood behind the table, lazily playing with a shot glass and a gigantic bottle of vodka.

Reina smiled again, her sinister grin far from a friendly gesture. "I can't go after the couple... and I can't harm Sakura…" Her grin grew wider, a shimmering glint forming in her eyes. "But Karin never said that I could throw her… a little welcoming friendship ceremony. Besides," the brunette continued, playing with a nearby shot glass with a finger, "Karin's always wanted the truth." A larger smirk. "Let's see if I can get it out of Pinky."

**-xxx-**

"C'mon, Sakura. Just get in the water." The raven-haired man stood there in the university's community pool, one eyebrow raised in annoyance at the rosette's antics. It was already around three o'clock in the afternoon when he had invited her over and still, two hours after they had gotten ready and had driven over to the pool, Sakura stood there in her green one piece, fidgeting around, her long pink hair flowing down to the small of her back. Her green eyes shimmered in fear. She stayed quiet at the raven-haired man's command, refusing to move, her legs practically glued to the spot.

Sasuke sighed, flipping his already wet hair out of his onyx eyes. He scowled at the swim clad rosette that just stood at the edge of the pool. "Do you want me to teach you how to swim or not?"

Sakura bit her lip. "Mou, Sasuke-kun…" she stated hesitantly, "you were the one who invited me here in the first place…" She stared back at him, a worried and frightened expression painted over her usually happy face.

The raven-haired man sighed irritably before climbing out of the pool. He walked over to the girl's bag that was lying nearby on a small sun tanning chair that always seemed to be there near pools. How cliché….

The rosette glared at him while he walked past her to her bag. "Sasuke-kun, what the hell are you—" She stopped. In the raven-haired man's hand…was none other than her beloved iPod. Sakura's emerald eyes widened, her mouth hanging open. "You bastard, put down my iPod!"

Smirk. "Then come in and let me show you how to swim." Sasuke still held the black iPod squarely in his hands.

"Mou! Sasuke-kun, you know that I'm afraid!" whined the poor pink-haired girl, currently trying to lunge for her poor iPod. Sasuke was too tall for her. He held it out of her reach effortlessly as Sakura continued in vain to grab for her beloved item. "Sasuke-kun! Stop!"

"Sakura." The sound of his voice stopped her mid-lunge. Sakura accidentally smacked her cheek against his toned chest.

"Oww…" The rosette rubbed at her face, a red mark already starting to form on her pale skin. She looked up from where she stood to glare up at him as best she could. "Baka! Look what you did!" She pointed to her reddening cheek.

Smirk. "Come in and swim."

"SASUKE-KUN, YOU—" Again, Sakura stopped mid-sentence. The raven-haired man, with her iPod in hand, began walking to the edge of the pool. He held out the hand that held the iPod directly over the chlorinated water.

"Sakura," he began, "come in and _swim_."

"Sasuke-kun, I'm warning you if you do that, then I'll…" She paused to think of a possible threat. "I'll…"

"You'll what?" Sasuke stood a good five yards away from her. Far enough to have the iPod drop in the water before the rosette could actually dash over to save it….

Sakura became desperate, her hands already clenching into fists of frustration at her sides. "I'll…_cry_."

Sasuke stopped, his hand with the iPod pulled back slightly, his grip still firm on the black piece of technology that Sakura held so dear. '_She'll…_cry_?'_ His grip on the iPod tightened, his knuckles white. "What's so important about this iPod anyway?" he asked as monotonously and uncaring as possible.

"What's so important?" Sakura asked, her hands still balled up into fists. "What's so _important_? It's my iPod, for God's sake! My mom would kill me if I lost it! Please don't do that…" Actually, it was more than that. _Much_ more than that. It held memories that were dear to her, memories of the trio that had been so close in childhood and now so far apart. It was her, Naruto… and Sasuke. '_I'd never tell him that…'_ the rosette thought to herself. '_Only until the day that I die…_' She focused back on pleading for her iPod. "Please, Sasuke-kun?" she whispered.

She heard the raven-haired man snort before bringing his hand back from over the ledge of the pool. Sasuke walked over to her bag and gently placed it back to where it belonged before sliding back into the pool. "Fine. I put it back," stated the raven-haired man. "Now don't cry."

Relief spread through her body. Sakura relaxed her muscles and her fists, her nails leaving crescent-shaped imprints in her palms. "Okay…" A small smile crossed her face. She kneeled at the edge of the pool to face the raven-haired man up close.

Sasuke felt something twinge inside him as he watched his old childhood friend smile and pat his spiky, midnight locks, her smile practically blinding him.

"Arigatou, Sasuke-kun!" she stated happily. She patted his black hair again before flashing him another smile.

"Hn…" he grunted, looking away from her. "So annoying…"

"What was that, Sasuke-kun?" Instead of receiving a reply from the stoic young man, Sakura instead was yanked into the pool, her arm in the grasp of a certain raven-haired man that could irritate her beyond ends. "Eeep!"

Water splashed everywhere as Sakura made her dynamic entry in the pool. She floundered around, trying to stay afloat. An arm held her tightly around the waist, helping her remain above the surface of the water. Sakura felt a part of the marble wall of the pool against her back. She had her eyes closed. "Am I dead yet?" she asked, too frightened to open her eyes.

"Hn. Just open your eyes."

Slowly, her eyelids fluttered open, revealing the shining emerald orbs that Sasuke had always known. Sakura's green eyes met his deep, mysterious black ones. It was then that Sakura realized that Sasuke was holding her by the waist, pressing her against the side wall of the pool… and against his hard chest. His onyx orbs bore into her own. The rosette felt her face flush the same color as her hair. "Ah, Sasuke-kun…" she began, trying to hold on to the edge of the pool and move away from the awkward position that they were in, "weren't you going to teach me how to swim?"

Silently, in that mysterious way that only Sasuke could do, the raven-haired man let go of her and nodded. His trademark smirk played at his lips. "You do know that we're only in the three feet part of the pool."

Sakura stayed silent for a moment before letting go of the ledge. "Shut up, teme…"

"Hn." Sasuke slowly inched his way over to the pink-haired girl, his hand outstretched. "Give me your hand."

The pink-haired girl obediently took it, letting Sasuke lead her into the middle of the three feet deep pool. Her emerald eyes gleamed in wonder. "So, what's going to happen?"

Sasuke stretched out both of his arms under the water behind the rosette. "I want you to lean back on to my arms. Hold your breath to try and stay afloat." Sakura did as she was told, holding her breath to stay above the surface of the water. "Lean your head back." She did that also, leaning her head back so that her neck was exposed. Sakura stared up into the already darkening sky above her and tried to take her mind away from the raven-haired man's arms underneath her that were just barely brushing against the bare skin that was exposed from her swimsuit.

The pink-haired girl smiled. "Hey, Sasuke-kun! Am I doing it?"

No answer.

"Ne, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura looked to her right where the raven-haired man was standing in the water… and realized that he was staring straight back at her. Her face heated up in self-consciousness. "Sasuke…kun?"

The raven-haired man said nothing, only letting his arms wrap around her small body that floated in the water.

"Gah! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura began to panic. "What are you _doing_?" She felt his arms tighten around her waist and hips, his right arm slowly sliding down to the crook of her bent knee and thigh. The rosette unconsciously shivered, feeling his hand stroke the smooth skin of her thigh. "Sasuke…kun…" She felt his face slowly bend toward hers, his long bangs tickling her cheeks. '_Is he…going to…_' Her heart thumped erratically in her chest. '_..._kiss_ me?'_

Her mouth parted, her lips only allowing one word to pass. "Sasuke-kun…" She closed her eyes, waiting for soft lips to brush against hers—

"YO! SASUKE-TEME! SAKURA-CHAN!"

—Only to have a loud, blond boy shouting out to them from only a few yards away. Sasuke quickly pushed Sakura away from him, making Sakura frantically grab for an edge of the pool.

"Jerk," she muttered quietly while she watched her blond friend approaching the pool with a familiar raven-haired girl.

Sakura gave the blond boy and the raven-haired girl a large smile. "Hinata-chan! Naruto! I haven't seen you guys in a while." She tried to calm her heartbeat down to a normal rate. '_Stupid Sasuke-kun… getting my hopes up like that_.'

Sasuke gave a guy-ish grunt, apparently Sasuke language for "Hello."

"TEME! DON'T DO STUFF LIKE THAT! SAY HELLO TO HINATA-CHAN POLITELY!"

Hinata nodded in his direction before turning her gaze over to her pink-haired friend. She shyly smiled at Sakura, bowing politely. Sakura noticed Hinata letting go of Naruto's arm. "K-Konichiwa, Sakura-san…"

The rosette laughed. "No need to get all formal, Hinata-chan." Her grin grew wider. "I see you're very friendly with Naruto, though…" Sakura waggled her eyebrows, watching her friend blush in something that was closely related to horror.

Naruto, turning away from the raven-haired man who was currently getting a tirade from the blond boy, grinned at the two of them. "Yup! Hinata-chan and I are like this!" He made two of this fingers twist around each other.

The pearly-eyed girl blushed a deep red. "N-Naruto-kun…"

"Oh, c'mon, Hinata-chan, you know it's true!" The blond boy gave a small chuckle before walking back to his apparent girlfriend and draping an arm around her shoulders, ignoring the stares coming from Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto returned a stare of his own, one that was accompanied with a small smirk. "So, what have _you two_ been doing in the pool, ne?"

"Naruto!" Sakura splashed a wave onto her blond friend, soaking him with the chlorinated water. Her face was painted with a small shade of pink. "Shut up! We weren't doing _anything_!" Her mind raced back to the event that happened moments ago.

The blond boy's grin grew wider. "Whatever you say, Sakura-chan…" His arm was still tightly holding his raven-haired girlfriend's shoulders. "It's a little late to be out here all by yourselves…"

Sasuke smirked at his friend. "You're one to talk, dobe."

Naruto let go of Hinata, balling one of his hands into a threatening fist. "YOU WANNA SAY THAT AGAIN, TEME?"

The rosette, once clinging to an edge of the pool, was now sitting on the ledge, letting her legs dangle and paddle in the water. She sighed in irritation. "Alright, you two, break it up!" Sakura stated mom-like. "I don't want to have to force you guys apart…" The raven-haired man and the blond boy glared daggers into each other, the testosterone in the air seemingly heightening. Hinata and Sakura gave sweatdrops. The pink-haired girl sighed once more in what seemed to be annoyance. Secretly, however, she was pleased; it was just like old times. In high school and middle school, they had always had testosterone fights (that's what Sakura would always call dominance battles between guys) to see who was the better one. So far, they were tied neck and neck.

Sakura looked up into the sky, already paling into glowing colors. Autumn and winter always seemed to bring night a lot faster… The rosette arched her neck back, trying to find a star in the darkening sky. '_It's so pretty…'_ she thought in awe. It was always so wonderful to watch the night sky when there weren't any light pollution from city lights. '_Someday, when I have someone special, I'll make them watch the stars with me…_' It was such a beautiful fantasy, one that Sakura had always dreamed of having with… well, you get the point. Sakura snapped out of her dream-like state.

"Oh, shit!" she cursed, snapping up into a standing position as she hurried over to her large bag. The rosette quickly reached for her towel, drying her long hair and wrapping it around her waist. Her three friends looked at her in confusion. "I almost forgot about the party…" muttered Sakura as she quickly tied her hair into a messy but manageable bun. She looked in the direction of the raven-haired man. "Sasuke-kun, can you drive me back to the dorms? I have to get ready for Reina's party." It was a shame that she didn't drive there herself. Sasuke had actually been waiting outside of the dorm earlier, waiting for her to be finished so that he could drive the both of them to the pool. '_So much for calling when I got here…_' Sakura thought with an inside chuckle.

Sasuke silently pulled himself out of the chlorinated water, walking calmly over to his own plain, black bag where he had a blue towel. He plucked it out from where it was folded neatly and draped it over his shoulders, wiping away at the stray droplets of pool water before grabbing his car keys and walking toward his black car where Sakura stood waiting for him, tapping her foot impatiently. Unlocking the car and sliding into the driver's seat, he unlocked the passenger seat for Sakura to slide in beside him.

The rosette waved good-bye to Naruto and Hinata who were now having their own little fun time in the pool. (**A/N:** No, there isn't anything naughty going on! Unless you really want it to…*wink*) With that, Sasuke pulled out of the pool parking lot and started to drive back to campus.

For moments, the two twenty-four-year-olds sat there in deafening silence, listening only to the car tires against the road and the crickets that chirped from the outside. Sakura took a glance at the car's digital clock. _6:30 PM. _'_C'mon…c'mon…'_ The rosette fidgeted, shaking her knee up and down.

Sakura decided to break the silence. "So… do you want to listen to some music?"

Sasuke shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road.

Sakura took that for an agreement. Quickly, she made work of connecting her iPod with the car's stereo. Then, finished with her work, the rosette turned on the stereo (while making a face at the hard-core country that played on the radio), unlocked her iPod, and scrolled her music list, searching for a song that the raven-haired man had possible not heard of. A name caught her eye.

**Your Ex-Lover is Dead by Stars**

Sakura smiled at the name before pressing the play button. She listened as the unusual piece came on to the stereo system, an eclectic array of harmonica, piano, guitar, and a drum beat taking their place to make a strange yet beautiful piece of music. The first singer began, the voice of a young man echoing through the surround sound.

_**God, that was strange to see you again**_

_**Introduced by a friend of a friend**_

_**Smiled and said, "Yes, I think we've met before"**_

_**In that instant it started to pour**_

As the young man continued to sing and the singer passed his lyrics to a female vocalist, Sasuke listened to the unusual song. He kept trying to listen for a chorus, a repeating verse. There were none. Instead, the raven-haired man found a storyline, one where it told of two ex-lovers meeting once again through sheer coincidence, memories scattered and forgotten throughout the years. Sasuke listened carefully, also reminding himself to pay attention to the road to the next lines that he heard.

_**There's nothin' but time and a face that you'll lose**_

_**I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose**_

_**I'll write you a postcard, I'll send you the news**_

_**From the house down the road, from real love…**_

The song continued, a tone of regret and bitterness echoing throughout the strange piece of music. The raven-haired man kept a steady emotionless expression, one that he had practiced keeping upon his face for so long as he continued to keep his ears focused on the song and his eyes on the road. His mind was elsewhere, thinking of the rosette that sat next to him, humming along to the song. '_Why the hell'd she choose this song… of all the songs on her iPod…?_' That mental question was soon answered by the next verse that struck him, nearly making him lose his grip on the wheel.

_**There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave**_

_**You were what I wanted, I gave what I gave**_

_**I'm not sorry I met you**_

_**I'm not sorry it's over**_

_**I'm not sorry there's nothing to save**_

_**I'm not sorry there's nothing to save…**_

It was there that the song ended, leaving the listener hanging on to the very last note, the faithful tone of the harmonica playing until the end.

In the distance, Sasuke had realized that they were finally at the girls' dormitory. He parked his black car into a parking space, turning off the ignition before turning to face the rosette next to him. Sakura was slowly making work of carefully removing her iPod from the stereo slot and putting it gently inside of her bag. "Sakura."

Her name on his lips caught her attention. "Yes, Sasuke-kun?" she answered with a small, tired smile. She was already getting out of the car. Sasuke went out with her, still keeping his gaze with hers.

"Hurry up and get dressed. I'll drive you there," Sasuke simply stated before sliding back into his car to wait for her.

Sakura quickly thanked him before dashing upstairs to get ready for the night that would change everyone's lives.

**-xxx-**

"Call me when you're ready to go home. I'll be off with Naruto somewhere."

The pink-haired girl giggled before pinching her childhood friend's cheek, watching the raven-haired man scowl at her in irritation. "Aw, Sasuke-kun, I didn't know you cared. Maybe chivalry_ isn't_ dead after all…"

Sasuke scoffed at her ridiculous remark. "Tch. Annoying," he breathed out, flipping his black bangs out of his matching eyes.

Sakura giggled again, letting go of Sasuke's cheek and giving him a dazzling smile. '_If only he wasn't so romantically challenged…'_

Inner Sakura cackled evilly. '_**What do you mean he's romantically challenged? Remember the time at the pool just an hour or something ago? I'm pretty sure that was something…'**_

The memory hit her. Staggeringly hard. (Man, why do they keep getting hit with these memories?) The rosette's mind went back to what had happened previously in the day at the university pool… when a certain-raven-haired man actually showed her signs of…_something_. Something…alone the lines of… _affection_? It was possible. His gestures in the pool had said it all. Sakura shivered when she remembered Sasuke's onyx orbs burning into her emerald ones, remembering his fingertips barely grazing the soft skin on her thigh and his arm wrapped around her waist. '_Yeah…that was something…'_ But what could it have been?

'_Time to find out, ne?'_ What was the worst that could happen? Bravening up, Sakura opened up her mouth to question him about the day's earlier events. Only to be silenced by the raven-haired man himself.

Sasuke only said one thing. "I don't care."

That stopped Sakura immediately. "H-Huh?"

The young man turned his dark, onyx orbs toward her, his intimidating eyes seeming to stare her down. "I said that I don't care. I don't care about what you do. Just don't blow our cover."

"But what about—"

"What happened today didn't mean anything. I was only doing it because I felt that there were fangirls watching us. That's all." He kept his steady gaze at her, his stare almost daring her to say otherwise.

Everything in the rosette's heart deflated: the hope, the courage… even the will to walk. Sakura forced out a laugh. "Ah-ha… yeah. I knew that," she stated weakly, tucking loose strands of pink hair behind her ear. "I was just wondering that's all. Just…testing you…" She gave him a weak smile, hoping that he wouldn't notice her disappointment. She took out her cell phone to check the time. "Ah, I have to be going in now." Weak smile. "Wouldn't want Reina-san to think I didn't come…"

And with that, the rosette calmly (no, not really) walked to the mansion double doors, greeted the security guard at the front door with her invitation, and slipped into the party. All without looking back at the raven-haired man behind her.

Sasuke stood there, blatantly staring after her before walking back to his car and putting his keys into the ignition. The song she had played earlier was stuck in his mind, the last few lines playing over and over in his head. '_I'm not sorry I met you… I'm not sorry it's over… I'm not sorry there's nothing to save…'_ Before he knew what he was doing, Sasuke flipped open his black cell phone, dialed a number, and, when the other line picked up, said monotonously, "Oi, dobe. I want you to come to the party site. I'm going to need some help getting inside…"

**-xxx-**

Sakura stepped inside, seeing the large mansion just as big on the inside as it was intimidating on the outside. She gazed around, taking in the spiral stairs, marble flooring and many, many people that she had seen around campus. '_Wow… this is a really big party…'_ What an understatement that was…

Her mind wandered back to what Sasuke had indifferently stated earlier, about everything that happened between them at the university pool being an act of paranoia, a lie. '_Somehow I wouldn't doubt that…_' It wasn't the first time that Sasuke had acted like that, throwing away his past as if it meant nothing to him. '_Just like the time that he left…'_ Her hands unconsciously clenched into fists as the unkind memory plagued her mind. Sakura remembered what she had done the following days after Sasuke had left Konoha. She remembered staying at a bar, day and night, practically destroying her liver with the numerous shots of whiskey she had ordered. The rosette's lips played into a ghost of a smile, remembering how she had also thrown in wine, beer, and hard core vodka into the mix. '_That's how stupid he made me…'_ she thought sadly. '_And I can't believe I still feel the same way…'_

"Haruno-san! I'm so glad you could make it!"

Sakura snapped her head around to find the source of the voice that had called her name out so formally. She smiled when she saw her host approaching her in the midst of the throng of people. "Reina-san, how nice to see you." Sakura took in everything around her a second time. "This is a really nice party you've got going on," she stated genuinely, her emerald orbs going around the room. "You're a great host."

The brunette forced a smile. "Thank you, Haruno-san. I try my best." She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder before flashing another practiced smile. "Would you like to have a drink?"

Sakura nodded before letting the brunette drag her along to a bar near the kitchen. She desperately needed some sort of alcohol… any type of alcohol… even if that meant breaking her alcohol oath. '_Not like I haven't broken it before…' _

Reina sat her down on a stool near the crowded bar. She yelled over to the bartender in a loud voice, trying to make herself heard over the loud music and the talking people. "One special, Jun!" The bartender quickly made work of a nice-looking drink. He slid it over to the brunette. Grabbing for the glass, Reina handed it to Sakura, smiling cheerfully. "Here you go, Haruno-san! One special!"

The rosette stared at it. It looked like a plain glass of champagne. But just to make sure… "What's in it, Reina-san?"

The brown-haired host laughed amiably, revealing straight, bleached teeth. "It's just some champagne mixed in with my dad's favorite vodka… and a secret ingredient…"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Secret ingredient?"

Reina shrugged, flipping her brown hair over her shoulder. "If I told you, it wouldn't be very secret anymore, now would it?" She pushed the glass toward the rosette. "C'mon. Just take a sip. I bet you it's really good…"

After a good analysis of the drink, Sakura shrugged, lifted the glass up to her lips and took a sip. The taste exploded in her mouth. For a strange concoction, it was absolutely exquisite, the champagne adding a delicious fizzy burst and the vodka adding in strength. Whatever the secret ingredient was, it sure made it taste good. The rosette smiled. "Wow… this is really good."

Reina had a few more glasses with the same concoction by her arm. She pushed them toward the pink-haired girl. "Have some more."

Sakura hesitated. Would it be safe to have some more? After all, drinks in a party were what made disasters… But, remembering Sasuke's cold, uncaring demeanor toward her earlier and the sharp twinge in the heart that ached to have more, the rosette grabbed at another glass, downing it. '_I'm an adult…I'll make my own decisions,'_ she thought as she reached for her third glass, '_It's not like anyone cares about what I do…_' Especially not the block of ice that she had stupidly fallen for since she was a child…

The room began to spin around her. Sakura felt arms leading her to another place. Her legs could barely support her weight. However, her legs were apparently unneeded, seeing how she was seated… and tied to a chair.

The rosette gave a dizzy hiccup. She stared lazily around the room, finding fuzzy figures surround her, a light shining in her face. A voice spoke from behind.

"Now," it began, "can you tell me about how your relationship with Sasuke is?"

Sakura gave a drunk laugh. "You're so funny…"

_Smack._ The sound of palm against flesh echoed throughout the halls. However, it wasn't enough to attract the attention of the other party goers, still in the ballroom, dancing with their partners and not exactly observant enough to find out what was going on in the other room. Everyone was so busy with their own business—Sakura, too drunk to notice anything; the fangirls, too busy with their little interrogation; and the party goers, too busy with their…party-going—that not a single person noticed a raven-haired man and a blond boy with masks sneaking around in the ball room, trying to find a certain pink-haired girl. Nor did the fangirls and Sakura realize that a certain redhead with glasses was present at the party… and the only person who heard the sound smack of palm against skin in the other room.

Although the three of them were in different parts of the mansion (the two boys in the ballroom and Karin near the bar), they all had the same thought: Something was not right. And _something_, something terribly wrong, was about to happen to a certain pink-haired girl.

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note**: Wow… first chapter that I had to split up into two… this happens to be 17 pages long with a good 8,000 or so words… so I'm splitting this chappy up into two! :D Sparks the cliffhanger, I know… but you guys will just have to wait. :P Part two will come out, don't you worry!

Oh, I know that some of you are wondering about the names, so here are the meanings!

Toshiko Reina—"Toshiko" means "clever child" and "Reina" is derived from "Rei-", which means "bell" or "nothing, zero"; This fits in with Reina's character: she's clever and really is nothing but a jealous fangirl. (Oh, and if you're wondering about her bartender: "Jun" means "obedient".)

Chinatsu Akiko—"Chinatsu" means "a thousand summers" and "Akiko" means "autumn child" or "sparkling child." The sidekick should always have a name that's related to the seasons. I just did that because of the season that the story started in (Autumn, remember?). And, since Akiko's kind of bipolar, I made her last name mean "a thousand summers". :)

Izanagi Hitoshi—"Izanagi" means "man who invites" (waggles eyebrows); and "Hitoshi" is "level-headed". He's the guy, so he's the one who's level-headed and… likes to have the attention of a certain pink-haired person. (waggles eyebrows).

Oh! And the number! I know that a lot of people will probably send me something about Reina's phone number. Well, I researched that Japanese numbers have ten digits after the area code. If you know where the area code is [(_075_)] then message me and I'll tell you if it's right or not. :)

And there you have it! The names and numbers! :D So. Tell me how you like it, ne? I'll be there at the party with the characters as the DJ, saying into the mike, "Alright, you guys, make sure you leave me a review! And I'll give you a little shout-out the next time around!" :D

_Review, review, review_~:D


	8. iParty: Part 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's Note:** Whew. Got this one done. :) Sorry I had to cliffhang the other one. (cries) It's because I didn't want to make one chapter 30 pages! D: So… have fun with this one? Lots of drama, I assure you, so don't you worry! ;)

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 8**

**iParty (Part 2)**

**-xxx-**

"Do you see her anywhere?" The question came from the mouth of a young man with a panther mask on. The only thing that made him stick out was the spiky, midnight locks of hair that protruded from the back of his head. His eyes, the same shade as his hair, focused on a blond boy next to him who wore the mask of a jester.

The blond man turned his cerulean eyes towards his friend. "I don't see anything of her, teme…" He had looked everywhere in the ballroom, searching for a head of pink. Nothing. "Did something happen between you and her or something? Is that why you're making me—"

"Nothing happened, Naruto," snapped the raven-haired man, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. His voice lowered in volume, making it so that only the blond man could hear him. "I just said that she better not let anything slip from her mouth that our little fake relationship thing—"

"_What_?" Naruto hissed, staring at his best friend through his mask holes as they continued to push past the dancing people around them to continue their search. "How could you say something like that?" By now, Naruto was waving his hands around his head in a desperate attempt to keep from smacking the dense man upside the head. "How could you be _using_ her like this?"

Sasuke pushed past a few more people, making his way over to an empty part of the room. He took off his mask and massaged his brow, sighing in exasperation before giving the blond a hard look. "Look, I'm not just doing this for me, I'm doing this for _her_, too. Besides, she doesn't seem to mind."

Naruto had also taken off his mask. He paced back and forth, pulling on his bright golden locks of spikes, keeping them busy as to not lay a hand on the irritating bastard. He walked right up to his friend, staring him right in the eye. "How could _you_"—he shoved a finger in his face—"know how Sakura's been feeling about this? Do you ever _ask_ her?" He lowered his finger, his blue eyes full of raging emotion. "Have you ever even _considered_ how she felt about this?"

The words that spewed out of the blond man's mouth made Sasuke flinch. His mind wandered back to the first day of college for all of them, on the day that he had told her that they were going to be in a "relationship" in order to keep the fangirls away from the both of them. Remembering how she had reacted, how he had silenced her, the raven-haired man couldn't say that she had done it because of her own free will: she had done it because he had _forced _her into it. Naruto's words had truth in them. And Sasuke didn't have anything that went against it. So, being as stubborn as he was, the raven-haired man used his defense mechanism: ignorance. "Hn. Shut up, dobe," he monotone, putting his mask back on. "Just help me find her." The raven-haired man walked back into the crowd, letting the blond boy stare blatantly after him.

**-xxx-**

_Smack_. _Smack_. _SMACK_. A cry of muffled pain echoed around the room.

The sound of palm against flesh sounded throughout the walls of the mansion, barely heard over the blaring music that took over the other rooms. A group of girls stood surrounding a certain pink-haired girl, tied up in a chair with her hands bound behind her. Her face, once pale and untouched, was abused with color, her stinging flesh due to tortuous hands that never gave in to cries of mercy.

The rosette's vision was blurred with unshed tears of pain and her mind hazy from the alcohol. She stared up into the group of girls, glaring down at her with daggers and hate in their eyes. '_I'm so screwed…'_

A low, dangerous voice laced with poison interrogated from her again the same question that had been asked since the beginning of the party. "Are you going to tell us about your little relationship with Sasuke or no?"

Sakura's mind was hazy, but her hearing was still good. The rosette gave a mocking laugh. "All dis time…yoo wure asking me that. But—"

Another smack. The head of the interrogation flipped her brown hair over her shoulder before massaging her reddening hand. "Don't laugh, you conniving bitch. Just answer the question."

Sakura spoke again, her words slurring. "I am… but the only t'ing isssss…" The rosette gulped down spit. "There really iss't a relationship…"

The fangirls quieted. Reina sat down on a nearby stool, a satisfied smirk playing on her lips. Just as planned… Reina could hear footsteps coming from the other room. Her evil grin widened. "Keep talking, Pinky…"

The rosette continued, her words slurred but coherent enough. "Sasukay's just been yoo-sing me to get rid of you guys… He doesn't care about me…" These words came out sadly despite her drunken state. Her demeanor turned angry, violent tears flowing down her face as she continued to reveal the truth. "He doan give a foock about what happeens to meeee… s'all a fake…. S'all a _lie_!"

"Wha…what?"

The conniving brunette's evil grin remained on her face as she let her little group of Sasuke fangirls turn their heads to see who had spoken. A redhead with glasses stood in the doorway that led to the ballroom, her mouth wide open and her shocked eyes focused on the drunken pink-haired girl that sat, tied to a chair in the middle of the fangirl circle. Reina smirked as she watched Karin's bottom lip quiver in disbelief.

Karin managed to speak through her ordeal. "Wha—what are you _saying_, Sakura?" She walked up to the rosette who was able to recognize the redhead that approached her. "What are you _talking_ about?"

Sakura's face was drenched with hot tears and bruised by the numerous smacks she had received from her little interrogation. Her vision began to clear and her mind became less hazy as she began to become slightly more sober… and realized her grave mistake. Although she was sober enough to comprehend the words, she still slurred her words. Her mind was still a bit hazy."Ka-Karin! I-I caan exp'ain—"

"Explain _what_?" The redhead became hysterical, her glasses slipping down to her nose. "Explain the thing that you just said earlier? About your little relationship with Sasuke being a lie? Something to get rid of us? Of _me_?" Karin looked at the pink-haired girl helplessly, hoping that what Sakura would say was that everything that she had said was a lie.

But Sakura knew that it wasn't a lie. What she had said wasn't a lie. '_The only lie is Sasuke…'_ The rosette, trying as best she could to stop slurring her words, began. "Kaaar-rinn—"

"Sakura."

Sakura's heart squeezed at her name that was voiced so helplessly from the one person that she wanted to console, the one person that she had hoped and dreamed about becoming friends with. And all that went down the drain.

"Sakura," Karin began again, "Please…_please_ tell me that this isn't true."

Sakura's heart squeezed. "I'mm soorry, Kariin…" Tears sprung at her eyes, rolling down her face and creating new tracks of salty water. "I'm sooo soorry…" She hung her head. "Everyt'ing's trooe… it's _all_ trooe…"

Karin's glasses began to get foggy with the heat of her tears. It had been such a long time since she had shed any tears… and now this stupid incident was going to break the years of no tears. The redhead yanked her glasses off of her face to wipe away the warm droplets of salty water that began to fall down her cheeks. She shook her head, contempt and disdain contorting her features. "To think that I actually thought you were a _good_ person..." Karin shook her head again, forgetting about the tears. She looked directly at the pinkette, ignoring the gazes that she was receiving from the others. "You're such a damn whore… you know that?" she spat, her voice laced with poison.

Sakura gulped down a sob, feeling the sense of unwanted dread slowly crawl up her throat. She had wished that this would never come. "S'not whad yoo t'ink, Karin—"

"Not what I _think_?" Slowly, the redhead walked toward her like a stealthy panther that was stalking its prey. "So I'm guessing that your 'relationship'"—she emphasized the word with air quotes—"with Sasuke really _wasn't_ a fake and you're just a goddam liar." She narrowed her eyes at her. "Is it?"

"Noo, but I—"

Karin gave a snort and sneered, "I bet you were just doing it for the attention… for Sasuke's and for everyone else's…" She gave her the meanest sneer she could buffer. "You make me _sick_."

"Sakura-chan! We finally—"

"Shut up, dobe."

Another interruption had the others turning their heads to look at the doorway. Reina raised an eyebrow in amusement. '_This is getting interesting._'

In the doorway stood a familiar blond-haired man. But, that wasn't who everyone in the room was staring at. The person that had caught their attention (the fangirls that is) was none other than Uchiha Sasuke himself. The raven-haired man stood there, leaning against the doorway. His eyes were cold and hard and directed at the perpetrators involved. Those onyx orbs moved toward Sakura's limp, abused figure… and widened a fraction. Sasuke struggled, trying not to punch a hole in the wall when he took in the damage.

Sakura was sitting, bound to a chair by her hands and feet. Her face was bloody and bruised with red marks that resembled hands. It wasn't helping with that fact that she was crying, the tears making the bruises on her cheeks more purple and red. Her emerald eyes, once shining with the familiar happiness that Sasuke had always seen in them, were now dull and flat, almost resembling dirty green pools of algae.

Sasuke felt his hands clench at his sides. He pushed himself off of the door frame, calmly walking toward the poor rosette that sat there, silently crying and staring at Naruto, at Karin… not once did she lay her eyes on the raven-haired man. Those eyes were averted, staring at nothing but empty space. It was lucky that there were, too. Sasuke felt his self-control slipping away bit by bit… and if Sakura had given him those eyes…

His teeth grounded together as he pressed his nails into the palms of his hands, ignoring the sharp pain. '_I would have killed someone by now…_' The silence that plagued the room was going on for far too long. So, Sasuke decided to break it. With an icy tone, the raven-haired man hissed out, "Who did this to her?" He turned around, scanning the audience for a suspect. "_Who_ _did this to her?_"

"I did."

Sasuke snapped his head around to glare at a calm, brown-haired girl. His eyes widened. '_She's the one who…_' Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. She was it. This brunette was _it_. She was the one who had invited her here; _she_ was the one from his Math 150 class; _she_ was the one that had bumped into Sakura in the middle of the street… and almost had her run over. He felt his palms start to bleed as he continued to dig his nails into his hands. This girl…was the one who was playing with Karin.

That was when Sasuke decided to go on the offense. "You…" He walked toward her, slowly, _slowly_ before stopping in front of her about a foot away. "_You're_ the one who's been behind this." He narrowed his eyes at her, lowering his voice dangerously. "I want you to stay away from my girlfriend. Do you hear me?"

Instead of receiving a meek nod and an expected "Yes," Sasuke was surprised when he saw the brunette throw her head back. And _laugh_.

Sasuke stifled the urge to strangle the girl.

Once the brunette was done laughing, she met her gaze with his before she spoke. And said the words that Sasuke thought that he hoped that he would never hear. "You sure are a great actor, Sasuke-kun," she said sweetly, walking over to Sakura. The brunette grabbed Sakura's long pink hair and gave a tug. "But you really didn't fool us."

Sasuke felt himself go numb. "I don't know what you're talking about." He didn't move.

The brunette gave another laugh. "Don't play stupid, Sasuke-kun. We know your little game. In fact"—she gave a tug on Sakura's hair—"_this_ one here gave us all the information we needed to prove it." The brunette gave another hard tug. Sakura yelped in pain.

The raven-haired man advanced toward them. "Shut up. Sakura is my _girlfriend,_" he announced emphatically. "Take it or leave it." He untied the pink-haired girl. Sakura, weary from the abuse she had endured, collapsed into his arms. The raven-haired man held her bridal style, her head pressed against his chest protectively. Sasuke turned his icy stare toward all the girls in the room before murmuring one last thing. "_Stay. Away. From. Sakura_." And with that, Sasuke pushed past the redhead that stood stunned near the door and his blond friend, walking out of the kitchen room, away from the ballroom, and out, out into the cold, unforgiving night that was sprinkled with small lights. Sasuke walked over to his black car, still holding the drunken Sakura in his arms.

From behind him, he could hear Naruto screaming after him. "DAMN IT, TEME, HOW THE HELL AM I GOING TO GET HOME?"

Sasuke swiveled his head around. "Your car's right there." The raven-haired man returned his attention to his car. Gently, he rested Sakura against him, supporting her by wrapping one of her arms around his neck while he reached inside his jean pocket to fetch his car keys. Even though he was physically there in the parking lot, supporting Sakura, opening the car door, and finally sliding into the driver's seat, Sasuke's mind was frantic and lost. '_What the hell happened in there…?'_ His hands tightened on the steering wheel. '_Those fangirls couldn't have just _known_ that…'_ So… how could they have known? Sasuke felt the answer slowly come to him, his onyx eyes widening a fraction. '_She couldn't have…'_ he thought as he drove out of the parking lot and started toward the Konoha University campus.

His mind was racing. '_Sakura couldn't have said anything…'_ She couldn't have. She _couldn't_ have. Did she? Sasuke took a glance at the girl, her once shining emerald eyes flat, the life drained out of her. What the fuck _happened_ at that damn party that made her so… so _lifeless_? Sasuke kept his eyes on the road before he spoke. "Sakura…"

The rosette stirred in her seat. She struggled to sit up in the passenger seat, apparently the alcohol still affecting her. It showed in her speech. "Neee…. Sa-suuu-kay…kuun?" she slurred. She turned her blurry eyes to him.

Sasuke ignored the tightening of his chest. He spoke monotonously, almost cold and as uncaring as he sounded when he confronted those crazy bitches of fangirls. "What happened?"

The pink-haired girl stayed quiet. There was complete, utter silence for deathly moments. Only the sound of the tires against the pavement was heard. The two could see that they were approaching the girls' dormitory.

"Sakura," Sasuke repeated again, his tone flat, "What the fuck_ happened_?"

The rosette couldn't take it anymore. The sobs that she had been holding back at the party, the tears that wouldn't run down her face when they had smacked her again and again, finally came violently, the sobs wracking at her small frame and the tears creating rivers on her cheeks. She couldn't take it. What was she supposed to tell him?

Sasuke parked in the provided parking space. He turned off the engine, sighing as he unbuckled his seat belt. Sasuke stepped out of the car and walked over to the passenger seat to pull Sakura out. The pink-haired girl, once outside and barely standing, buried her face into his chest, pressing her face into the fabric of his shirt and clenching fists into his jacket.

Sasuke awkwardly placed a calloused hand on the girl's soft, pink hair, caressing it comfortingly. "What happened?" he murmured softly now, afraid of making her even more frighteningly emotional. "Tell me."

Sakura shook her head, her salty tears setting in to Sasuke's shirt. Her words were still slurred as she spoke. "Sasu-kay…kun…" she said through sobs, "I can't tell yoo…" Sakura took in short gasps of breaths. "Yoo'll get maad at mee…"

Sakura felt Sasuke's hand fist in her hair and his chin on the very top of her head. "Tell me what happened, Sakura…"

_Hic. Hic_. "Thaay made mee tell them, Sasu-kay-kun…" Another sob escaped her throat as she pressed her face deeper into his clothes. "I'm sooo soorry…" Sakura tried to make her tears stop flowing. Her attempts only made it worse. She exploded, the sobs even worse than before. Sasuke held her, one of his arms wrapped around her shoulders to keep her still. The other dangled lifelessly at his side. One arm away from embracing her wholly.

"They _made _you tell them?" Sasuke inquired, his voice laced with deadly poison. His mind raced to when he had found her in the room with that circle of fangirls… bruised and battered…

His hands clenched unconsciously, fisting at Sakura's shoulder. He felt her wince over her sobs.

Sakura looked up at him now, freeing herself from her death-like grip on his clothing and allowing the raven-haired man to stare down into those green, green eyes that were now brimming with thousands of unshed tears. He remembered those eyes; the same eyes that he had seen since he was five. He heard her speak; speak in that voice that he had know for over twenty years of his short life.

"They…(hic)… got meee droonk off of sumthin'…" she slurred helplessly, leaning against Sasuke's car that blended in with the night. A pair of strong hands grabbed her shoulders.

"Stupid. Why'd you be so _stupid_ and actually let them _do_ something like that? Why'd you _drink_?" Sasuke was shaking her by the shoulders frantically, showing more emotion than the both of them had ever witnessed from him. It was frightening.

Sakura's eyes continued to overflow with those salty rivers that never knew when to stop. "Beecuz!" she cried, trying unsuccessfully pry his hands off of her shoulders, "Becauz!" The tears wouldn't stop. They couldn't stop. And it seemed like they never would. Sakura kept crying. It wasn't her fault. She never wanted this. She never _asked_ for any of this. So, she put all of her emotions forward, and spewed out everything, her drunken state making her mind hazy and unable to comprehend what she was saying. "It's all because I love you!"

Sasuke stopped. Dead silence hung in the air. The cold, night wind blew mindlessly through the empty space. The raven-haired man simply stood there, the pink-haired girl's words echoing in his mind. "What are you talking about?" he asked in a droan-like voice. He shook at her shoulders. "_What are you talking about?_" She couldn't love him. She _couldn't_ love him. It was because of all the pain he had subjected her to for four long years that they didn't see each other. It wasn't that he didn't care for her, didn't want her to continue loving him. It was just... just…

He was going to admit it. The raven-haired man (he gulps down his dignity)… cared for the pink-haired girl. Hard to believe, but absolutely, positively, one hundred percent true. It was so obvious. He had cared for her since they were at the age of five. And it had all shown when he had stood up for her that day. When he had that pang of guilt from not standing up for her after the Romeo and Juliet party. When he had painfully, painfully left her, crying and begging for him not to leave. And now he was finally realizing that. She was one of a kind. Her unique pink hair that always seemed to smell so much like vanilla-coated cherry blossoms; her petite figure that seemed too small a frame to hold her up; and those eyes… those shining, emeralds for eyes that showed love only for him.

The rosette continued to slur, her back still against Sasuke's black car. "I waass soo depressed… you wure just yoosing me… yoo-sing me for yer own benefits…yoo didn't even ask how I wuz feelin' 'bout it…" She choked back a sob. "Sooo I drank. `N they took advantage of mee…" Her bottom lip quivered. "I'm soo soorry, Sasu-kay-kun…"

Emerald eyes… "I'm sorry…"

'_I don't deserve her,'_ thought Sasuke as he let go of her shoulders after listening to her small, drunk declaration of love. He didn't deserve her. Not after deserting her, after breaking her heart that longed for him even after he was gone. But…

'_But I think I need her…'_ Sasuke lowered his gaze, staring at the black concrete of the parking lot they had been standing in. He wanted to tell her, tell her how he felt, what he wanted from her… but decided against it. It'd be better just to push her away. "Sakura…"

She slowly blinked, her long eye lashes innocently batting over her gleaming green eyes. "Sasuke…kun?"

Slowly, he lifted his gaze up to meet hers, his black, onyx gems clashing once again with shining green. He gave a small, cynical smirk. "You really _are_ annoying."

The rosette gave him a small, sad smile. "I know…" she responded sadly before letting go of the raven-haired man and drunkly walking to the girls' dormitory, stumbling and clumsily walking as she made her way up to room 401.

**-xxx-**

Sakura, now sober enough to walk by herself, stood in the elevator, thinking over what had happened. All she remembered was the party, the frightening brunette that had a freakin' hand of steel… and Karin finding out the truth. '_Not to mention the rest of them finding out…'_ Sakura thought tiredly with a sigh.

Her mind wandered to the words that Sasuke had left her with before she let go and drunkly tried to get in to the dormitory lobby by herself.

"_You really _are_ annoying…"_

Sakura banged her forehead against the elevator doors, thinking about how stupid she was to tell him, thinking that it'd end with a happily ever after. "He doesn't care…" she mumbled. Everything pointed towards that. Why would he use her like this, without even asking how she felt? Why would he restrict her from going to this party? And why would he care if he had left for four years?

The elevator door dinged, opening the double doors that led to the fourth floor. She walked out, taking a deep breath. What a night this had been… "Time to get some sleep…" she mumbled, walking past the other doors until she finally got to the door with a '401' on it. Taking the key from her pocket, Sakura inserted the key into the hole, twisted it in the right direction, and then, knowing that it was open, turned the door knob and pushed the door open. "Oi…I need to get some sleep," she mumbled to herself.

"About time, Pinky."

Sakura froze. Her eyes turned toward a bed where a familiar redhead with glasses sat, a small white pillow pressed against her stomach. Her eyes were cold and unforgiving at a first glance. At a second glance, those eyes were, in fact, confused and desperate for the truth.

"Karin…" Sakura breathed out, another feeling of dread attacking her systems. "I—"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Karin sat up on her bed, facing the rosette that stood near the doorway.

Sakura fought to find the right words. "I—I don't know! It's…it's just that I knew that you would hate me!" She leaned her back against the open wooden door, feeling helpless and cornered. "I knew that you would act this way and I didn't want to lose our small friendship!"

Karin continued to keep her eyes on her. "I can't believe you, Sakura…"

"See?" cried the poor pink-haired girl, hysterical now. "I told you!" She pressed her back harder against the open door, trying to keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks.

By now, Karin was standing right in front of the pink-haired girl, holding her by the collar of her kimono that she had worn to the party. Her eyes still held disbelief and confusion as she continued to talk. "I'm not mad at you because you got Sasuke! I'm mad at you because you didn't tell me that this was all a scheme! That this was all a _lie_!"

The tears were flowing freely down her cheeks, tears coming too many times in one night. "Everything's a lie…" she managed to choke out. "I don't even know what to say anymore…" The tears streamed down her face, soaking her kimono front.

The redhead smacked her. Hard. Sakura held her reddening cheek, wincing as she felt the bruises that were from the party earlier and the effect of the smack from Karin. She gazed up at the taller girl, her emerald eyes confused and hurt. Karin stared down at her, her hands clenched into fists into Sakura's kimono front.

"Dammit, Sakura! If you had actually told me about what this was, everything about this little scheme of yours and Sasuke's, I actually wouldn't be so mad right now!" The redhead's eyes were flaming, brutally staring daggers into Sakura's skull. She shook the pink-haired girl by the shirt, making the poor rosette's head smack against the hard, cold wood of the door. She stared straight into the pink-haired girl's face. "You know, maybe I was really wrong about you. What else are you lying about?" She shook her again. "_Huh_? Are you actually a penguin that can speak fluent English and plays poker or something?"

"Shut the fuck up, Karin."

The two girls turned their attention to the other side of the door where the voice had come from. A familiar blond-haired and blue-eyed young man stared at the redhead, malice in his usually cheerful eyes.

Karin stepped back from Sakura to narrow her eyes at the disruptive blond man. "Excuse me?"

Naruto shrugged. "You're excused." He turned serious. "If you two were having a fight, at least leave the door closed." He turned his eyes to his pink-haired childhood friend, eyeing her disastrous state.

Without a warning, the blond man grabbed her arm and pulled her out of her dorm and into the hallway. Naruto flashed a small grin towards the redhead inside. "Hope you don't mind me borrowing her!" he shouted at her before turning on his heels and dragging the pink-haired girl with him.

Sakura looked at him, her emerald eyes widening in confusion and shock. "Naruto? What are you—"

"I'm taking you for a little drive," the blond man said innocently before flashing her a Naruto-like smile and leading her out of the girl's dormitory door. "I need to get you to somewhere…and we need to have a little talk."

Sakura cocked her head to one side, curious of Naruto's actions. "Why were you in the girl's dorms?"

Naruto grinned at her sheepishly, opening the passenger seat of his small white mini-van for Sakura to step in and sit down. "Visiting Hinata-chan." _That_ explained everything…

Sakura obediently took her seat in the passenger side of the car. Naruto slid into the driver's seat, digging the key into the ignition and, once the car was all ready to go, took off out of the parking lot and began to drive to…wherever he was taking her.

The drive was silent for moments, the tires against pavement the only sound the echoed in the dark of the night and the crickets that seem to be around the entire campus. Then, Naruto spoke. "We need to talk about Sasuke."

Sakura stiffened in her seat. She turned away from him, avoiding her best friend's eyes. "Why would we need to talk about _him_?"

Naruto sighed. Why were his friends so dense? He hated to see them both unhappy, knowing that they both felt something for each other but were just too stupid to notice the other's feelings. Well…Sasuke was still seemingly in denial about caring (Naruto almost choked) about Sakura. But…

The blond man's fists clenched on the driving wheel, his knuckles turning ash white. '_Sakura has feelings for him…'_ The thought of his best girl friend deprived of love made Naruto's face turn sorrowful. That thought was the whole reason why he was doing this; why he was risking everything to make the stupid bastard know how Sakura felt and to make Sakura admit that she felt that way about Sasuke. Naruto returned to the conversation. "It's because we do."

"Why should we even _care_ about him, Naruto?" Sakura inquired in a frenzy, throwing her hands up in the air. "He doesn't care about anything…" Her voice turned soft and confused. "He doesn't know that we care… that I…" Her sentence trailed off. But Naruto already knew what she was about to say.

"Sakura-chan, don't say things like that," reassured the blond, still keeping his eyes on the road. "Sasuke does care. He cares about his friends. He cares about us."

Sakura stared out the window at the dark nothingness that seemed to mirror the state of her heart. "He doesn't care about me… he doesn't know that I love him…" She turned in her seat to face her blond friend. "I mean, why else would he just…fucking _leave_ us? Leave _me_ like that? He doesn't—"

Naruto slammed his fist on the driver's wheel, causing the car to swerve a little.

Sakura gasped before glaring at the blond's careless driving. "Naruto, you idiot, don't do—"

"Why do you keep telling yourself that, Sakura? Huh?" Naruto demanded, cutting off her mini tirade. It was his turn to make a point, and dammit, he was going to do it! "Why do you keep telling yourself the complete opposite of what everyone else sees?"

The pink-haired girl stayed quiet. She didn't know what to say. Her heart felt dead, unable to feel a thing. Her mouth and brain were the only things that were working properly at the moment. So she used them. "What the fuck are you talking about, Naruto?"

The blond man gritted his teeth in frustration. "I'm talking about how Sasuke feels." He kept his eyes on the road, but Sakura felt his burning tone as he continued to speak. "Haven't you opened your eyes yet? Haven't you seen how he looks at you?"

The rosette let the words set in. "I…"

"He _cares_ about you, Sakura! All this time, this fake relationship that you two have been having, he wasn't doing it for himself!" The blond's voice quivered with emotion. Sakura just stared, her mouth hanging open. "He was doing it for _you_, too! Why else would he have defended you like that? And at the party!" Naruto shouted, adding another point, "At the party, Sasuke was trying to look all over for you! He actually asked me to come over and _help_ him find you!"

Sakura continued her silent streak. She didn't know what to say…. It was too confusing. Why in the world would Sasuke, the fucking block of ice himself, melt a little for _her_?

"Why the fuck can't you two just go up and tell each other that you like each other already?"

This question made Sakura finally go ablaze. "It doesn't work like that Naruto!" Sakura finally shouted back. "It doesn't work like that! Don't you know that it takes two people to love?"

"I know that, Sakura, I know that! But… but…this _fake relationship_ that you guys were having…" Naruto stayed silent for a moment, extremely uncharacteristic of him. Then, he said the words that made Sakura's heart almost stop beating. It came out only as a whisper, but loud enough for Sakura to just barely hear it. "It didn't seem fake…I know the teme, Sakura. He loves you."

She stopped breathing. It wasn't an unrequited love. Sakura let that set in. "He…_loves_ me?" It was almost too impossible to think about. Uchiha Sasuke, renowned man for being the biggest prick that could care less if you got fucked over and tossed into a trashcan, loved her. She put her face in her hands. How could she not see it before? He had saved her that day from the car that was going to plow her over; realized that she was going to need someone to help her out of this mess, so he put up that fake relationship thing; and saved her another time at the party when they were busting the shit out of her. And he, not wanting to be found out, covered it all up by putting up an arrogant excuse, that he was doing it for himself. "Sasuke…loves…me…" She could hardly function anymore. Sakura turned to her blond best friend in the passenger seat. "I have to go find Sasuke."

"Already on it," Naruto responded, giving her a grin while he kept his eyes on the road. "That's where I'm taking you to."

Sakura smiled at him. "When did you become such an awesome friend, Naruto?"

"When I met you guys," the blond stated, pulling into a parking lot. He got out of the driver's seat and opened the passenger door to let Sakura out. Once she was out, Naruto said his goodbyes and good lucks and left for another destination (probably going back to Hinata's room…*wink*).

Sakura gazed out the window. The scene was beautiful. Sakura recognized it as the place where she and Sasuke always ate lunch. They had eaten there every day during lunch for the past two months under that beautiful tree that let colors fall from its limbs, awaiting the winter and the snow that was bound to come in two more months. The marble table was there, still placed perfectly underneath that beautiful tree. Sitting on one of the marble seats was none other than the Uchiha himself. He was staring at nothing in particular, not looking up at the sky to see the stars, not looking at the beautiful tree in the haunting night, but just…at his feet. The rosette walked up to the raven-haired man who was lost in thought. His back was to her, so he didn't exactly notice anything.

Until she spoke to him. "Um…hi, Sasuke-kun…" Sakura watched him startle, turning around to find her standing right behind him, her hands behind her back. She stared at him with those emerald eyes that would always captivate him.

Sasuke turned away. "What are you doing here?" His tone was biting and indifferent. It sounded practiced.

Sakura took a seat beside him, waiting for him to move away. He didn't. "The question is," she began, "what are _you_ doing here?"

There was a pregnant silence. "None of your business."

Sakura kept at it. "What are you thinking of, Sasuke-kun?"

'_You…'_ Sasuke shook that voice away. "Nothing."

Another silence stood between the raven-haired man and the pink-haired girl. The wind blew bitterly in the space between them. Sakura, wearing only a thin kimono, shivered. She eyed the man next to her before she resumed speaking. "I, ah…talked to Naruto…"

Sasuke snapped his head around. "What did he say?" he asked, paranoia shining in his onyx eyes. "What did he tell you?"

Sakura said nothing for a while. She toyed with the strings of her kimono and the long strands of her pink hair, averting her gaze from the raven-haired man. Then, resolution shining in her eyes, Sakura turned toward Sasuke and blurted out, "Sasuke, why did you save me from that car?"

She felt him stiffen in his seat. "I'm your friend."

"Why did you not want me going to that party?"

"Because I'm your friend."

Sakura kept her eyes on him, analyzing his every move, his every tension. "Do you care about me at all, Sasuke?"

It was his turn to be dead silent. The audible rustle of autumn leaves was the only sound when the wind picked up and blew them apart.

Sakura repeated her question. "Do you care about me, Sasuke?"

He stared at nothing. "I think you're annoying. And weak." He turned his attention to her, narrowing his eyes at her. "You always need someone by your side to protect you, and you always get yourself in all sorts of shitty situations."

The rosette felt her heart slowly dropping.

"But I wouldn't have it any other way."

The pink-haired girl stared at him with wide green eyes. "Eh?" She turned her head toward the raven-haired man… only to realize the close proximity of their faces. A blush crept on to her features.

"You're annoying…" Sasuke continued again, his sweet breath fanning her face, "…because you're always in my fucking head. And you're weak and helpless and always getting yourself into deep shit…." His onyx orbs shined brightly in the night. "…but I wouldn't have it any other way…"

Just before Sakura could say anything else, Sasuke caught her lips in a kiss. This one didn't feel like those other kisses that she had gotten from him in psychology class or when they were trying to fend off his fangirls… this kiss was _different_. There was passion and emotion in it, something that Sakura had believed that Sasuke would never have. But he proved her wrong. Slowly, she closed her eyes, melting into the kiss. The two of them were both in their own little world on that marble seat by the marble table, lost in each other.

"I love you," she whispered to him as their lips broke apart for a mere second.

Smirk. "I know."

**-xxx-**

Ino, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Naruto were hidden in the bush, watching the rosette and the raven-haired man kiss. Ino sighed. "I'm so happy for my little Forehead!"

Hinata nodded, shyly agreeing. Naruto pulled her into a hug as he watched both of his friends. "I love you, Hinata-chan!" The girl blushed.

Ino sighed again before turning to her boyfriend. "Why don't _you_ kiss me like that?"

The brown-haired boy looked at her lazily from where he sat with an arm draped around her shoulder. "I do." He gave her a wry smile before pulling her into a kiss.

Under the moonlight, three couples kissed, sealing their happiness in their partners and throwing away the title of unrequited love.

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:** Nice, ne? Heh-heh. Well, I think I'm done with this story now….

_**PSYCHE! WE'RE NOT DONE YET!**_

This story is far from over. :) There's going to be a few more chapters until the big finale. And of course, I like writing epilogues. Last chapter, the epilogue, will be called, iLive Happily Ever After. Fitting name, isn't it? Well, there are probably going to be more chapters in between this and the epilogue, so don't worry your little heads off. I've got it all planned out.

Future story forecast: Lots of irony and love and drama and, of course, music will be coming your way in the future chapters! Stay tuned for more!

And once again, I have to thank my friend Laelia for helping me with the idea of the party. Without her, I'd probably just revert back to my Writer's Block stage (WHICH WOULD EPICLY SUCK!). I love you guys for all the reviews that you've given me! :D You make me so happy!

Hm…what kind of review scenario should I make? Oh, I know!

Imagine me in Naruto's car while Naruto and Sakura were having that deep friendship-y talk about love and all and about how Sasuke loves Sakura, blah, blah, blah. I'll be sitting there in the back seat, crying my eyes out. Wanna know why? BECAUSE NO ONE HAS REVIEWED THIS CHAPTER YET! So make me feel better and:

_Review, review, review~!_


	9. iGo On a Date

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note: **Alright! Chapter 9, you guys! (cheers). Thank you guys so much for all your reviews. :) You really have made me extremely happy, and I really enjoyed reading them. (laughs) Anyways, just to clarify, last chapter, they really did start going out, so…NOW IT'S OFFICIAL! :D Happy, ne? Well, the story doesn't end there. There's probably about a few more chappies to go! :) Oh, and I made another time skip… (sheepish grin). It'll help with the story! :D

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 9**

**iGo On a Date**

**-xxx-**

The beginnings of another weekend were finally here. It was a wintery month, so the students of the town university were all safe and sound in bed. At least most people were… In the girls' dorm, a blond and a redhead stood by the edge of a bed where a certain pink-haired girl was sleeping soundly. The bed was in total disarray, pillows and bedsheets flown everywhere in a sleep attack. The rosette on the bed mumbled something in her sleep before tossing in her bed. The blond and the redhead snickered.

"Must be thinking about her new _boyfriend_, ne, Pig?" asked the redhead with a snicker. She stood by the bed with an alarm clock in hand before placing it gently next to the rosette's head.

The blond gave a small, stifled giggle before slowly creeping her hand over to the alarm clock. She gave a small sigh. "Oh, my goodness, Karin!" she whispered excitedly. "Can you believe that Sakura _actually_ has a _boyfriend_? A year or two ago, she was all study, study, study!" The blond gave a girlish squeal. "Now look where she is!"

Karin gave a grin. "Yeah. Sasuke and Sakura are pretty happy together." She gave a small, genuine smile at the sleeping rosette fondly. "I can't believe just three months ago they were faking it…" After the party long ago, the news of Sasuke and Sakura's fake relationship spread around campus like wildfire. The redhead remembered being furious at the rosette. She gave a sigh as she stared at her sleeping friend. Don't get her wrong or anything. It was just that Sakura hadn't told her about that fake relationship. That's why she was mad in the first place. Not because she still liked Sasuke or anything (c'mon, she was with Suigetsu!), but it was because Sakura hadn't been truthful. And in a friendship, the truth and communication is all that matters.

But! We digress.

The redhead snapped out of her revelry at the sound of Ino's voice. "Okay, Karin! Let's wake her up, ne?"

Karin, with a nefarious grin on her face, nodded once before plugging her ears. Ino placed her own earplugs in her ears before pressing the alarm clock's button… making it blare out some pretty loud music. Obnoxiously loud enough to wake up the entire girls' dorm, Ke$ha began to play.

_**Wake up in the morning feelin' like P-Diddy**_

_**Put my glasses on, I'm out the door **_

_**I'm gonna hit this city**_

_**Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack**_

_**Cause when I leave for the night, I ain't comin' back**_

The loud music made Sakura jolt up in her bed. "GAH! DON'T KILL ME!" she screamed, throwing her hands up in the air as if she was getting arrested. Instead of getting arrested like she had thought she would, Sakura found her two best friends (yes, Karin is now one of her _best friends_!) sprawled on the floor, laughing as if there was no tomorrow. The rosette pouted. "Mou, you guys!" she whined tossing her legs over the side of her bed. "Why'd you do that?" She pulled a small hand through her long pink hair, trying to straighten the unruly mess as best she could.

Karin managed to stop laughing. She wiped her glasses off and placed them back on the bridge of her nose before giving the rosette a smile. "C'mon, Pinky, don't tell me you don't know what today is."

The pink-haired girl let her eyes trail to a nearby calendar. On the small calendar on the current date read small printed letters that read:

_3 month anniversary with Sasuke~_

Sakura jumped up from her bed. "Oh, shit!" she cursed, running to the window. She stared outside into the white morning, patches of snow covering parts of the campus here and there. On the outside of the girls' dorm stood a certain raven-haired man, waiting near his black car for something. Or some_one_. The rosette panicked. "Gah! You guys, what—what do I do?"

Ino gaped at her. "Are you telling me that you guys didn't plan anything?"

Sakura shook her head. "I didn't do anything! Sasuke-kun just said that he was planning it all out!" She dashed around the room, confused. It wasn't everyday that Sakura, the girl who was always studying and never even _once_ considered a boyfriend, was subject to this type of dilemma.

A firm grip of a hand stopped Sakura in her tracks. Karin adjusted her glasses and sighed. "Sakura, you don't have to freak out. Just get ready to meet him down there and expect the unexpected." The redhead gave her a small encouraging smile. "Okay?"

The rosette, now slightly calmer, gave the redhead a nod. '_Karin's changed so much…'_ A smile crossed her face. Sakura was so glad that she and Karin were _finally_ friends after so many years of ill will. "Okay." Her smile grew wider. "Thanks, Karin."

On a nearby nightstand, Sakura's small green cell started to ring. Without checking the caller ID, the pinkette picked it up, placing it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Sakura," said a familiar baritone voice. The other girls smirked when they noticed the rosette shiver slightly. And it definitely was _not_ from the cold.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun," the rosette replied affectionately, a sweet smile crossing her face even though she knew that the raven-haired man on the other side couldn't see it. "What's up?"

"Hurry up and get dressed. I'm waiting outside the dorms for you," the man on the other side monotoned, seemingly emotionless. Probably heard the other two giggling their asses off….

The rosette, knowing that his ice-cube like demeanor was just his little act, gave a small laugh. "Alright then, Sasuke-kun. I'll see you in a little while."

Just as Sakura was about to hang up, Sasuke's voice came up again. "Oh, and bring along your iPod." _Click_. The rosette frowned at her green cell phone. '_What is that boy thinking…?'_ Sighing and clambering out of her bed, Sakura stretched her arms before giving her roommates a gigantic grin. "Guess what guys?"

Karin raised an eyebrow while Ino squealed in happiness.

"I'm going on a date with _him._" Ino finally exploded. She pounced on her friend, giving her the biggest hug she could muster. Karin gave a laugh, pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. After the mini-celebration, Ino pushed herself off of her best friend to give her some breathing room before she gave Sakura a smile and encouragingly said, "Now go get changed, my dear! Go and knock that guy's socks off and make that icicle of yours melt!" The blond pushed her away and, with a satisfied smile, dashed into the kitchen to get herself some coffee to celebrate.

Sakura looked through her closet, trying to find something nice to wear, wearing a very big smile on her face. She grabbed at warm-looking jacket. '_Three months already…'_ she mused to herself. '_I hope I won't keep Sasuke-kun waiting so long out there…'_

**-xxx-**

Sasuke stood outside of the girls' dormitory, waiting for his girlfriend to prepare for another morning. He stood, leaning against his black car, dressed for the weather. The raven-haired man pulled on his heavy but nice-looking jacket with a gloved hand and let out a sigh, his breath visible in the cold, cold air. All across campus were blotched layers of white blankets covering the once grassy fields, the trees that were once coated with colorful leaves now bare and seemingly dreary.

Sasuke scowled as the cold air became colder, clutching at his jacket as he waited outside the girls' dormitory for a certain pink-haired girl. He stared up into the cloudy sky that seemed to ache for snowfall. A smirk crossed his face as he realized the passing time. It had been almost three months since he and Sakura had started becoming "official" after their little fake relationship stunt in order to get rid of the fangirls. It all had gone down the drain when a stupid fangirl had invited the pink-haired girl to a party… and they had gotten the information they wanted forcefully. The raven-haired man almost flinched at the memory, but, being Uchiha Sasuke, he didn't. Instead, he scowled, the simple expression barely ruining his handsome, seemingly-carved face.

That party had done damage alright… but it had also made both the rosette and the raven-haired man himself realize their own feelings, feelings that they had for each other. And that was when it became official on that very night he kissed her under the shining moonlight nearly three months ago. And today was the day that it would finally be that third month. Another smirk crossed his features as he remembered the midnight he made Sakura his girlfriend.

_(Flashback)_

_Sasuke held her as he sat on that marble table's seat, his legs spread out where the rosette sat comfortably in between, her head resting on his shoulder and her back leaning against his toned chest. He took in the scent of her hair, his nose filling with that vanilla-cherry blossom smell that he had always known. The moonlight danced on her pale skin, making her face seem to shine in the midst of the dark night. Her eyes were slightly closed, those emerald pupils barely visible. She turned her head to press her face into the side of his neck._

_ "Sasuke-kun…" Sakura murmured softly, her breath tickling his neck. _

_ "Hn?"_

_ "What happens now?" The question was whispered, hushed by the sound of the wind that ran through the dark autumn night and the sound of Sasuke's beating heart. It was surprising that he even had one, being the cold being that he always claimed he was. _

_ Sasuke wrapped one of his arms around her tighter. "What do you mean?" he asked in response._

_ The rosette shrugged. "I don't know… I mean…what happens after all of _this_?" Her voice contained a hint of hope, one that Sasuke never thought that she would never leave behind. _

_ The raven-haired man gave her a slow, affectionate kiss on the cheek before answering. "What would you like to happen, Sakura?"_

_ She shivered when he said her name, trying to regain her composure there-after. "Um…" she let out, a blush on her cheeks, "…I don't know, Sasuke-kun." Sakura turned lifted her head off the man's shoulder to look him in the eyes with those enticing green ones of hers. "Is this going to be official now?"_

_ Sasuke returned her stare, his obsidian eyes blazing right back at her. He didn't answer her this time, merely gently lowering her head back in its former place and then, after tenderly moving her chin up to the point where their lips were almost touching, letting his lips press softly against hers. Slowly, it pulled into a more passionate kiss, their hunger showing as their lips moved against each others. It was Sakura who broke apart from it, taking in deep breaths of air. _

_ The two of them sat in wordlessness, only their pants speaking for them. _

_ Finally, Sasuke gave her his well-known smirk that Sakura loved. "Does that answer your question, Sakura?"_

_ Instead of screaming an expected "Yes!" and jumping him like other girls would, the rosette gave a smile. "Sasuke-kun?"_

_ The raven-haired man felt his smirk grow bigger. "Hn?"_

_ "Ask me properly."_

_ His jaw almost dropped. "Wha—What?" he spoke uncharacteristically. "I just _kissed_ you. As if that didn't answer your question."_

_ Sakura's face went stern. "I want you to ask me properly."_

_ Sasuke snorted. "Hn." No way in _hell_ was he, an _Uchiha_, going to actually ask a girl like _that_. Uchihas show their approval (or whatever they wanted to show) by actions, not by words. '_And I thought she knew me well enough…_' Guess not. "I'm not going to ask you like that."_

_ The rosette frowned at him in the darkness before pulling out of his hold and sliding onto another marble bench, sitting just out of his reach. Sasuke frowned, reaching over to grab her back to where she belonged (and she belonged where he was, damn it!) only to be thwarted by Sakura moving just out of his reach. Again. He growled at her. "Sa-ku-ra…" he said provocatively. "Come sit here with me."_

_ The rosette crossed her arms and looked away from him. "Not until you ask me to properly become your girlfriend."_

_ Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. "Sakura—"_

_ "Just do it, Sasuke-kun," she finally said, exasperatedly. "It's not that hard!"_

_ The raven-haired man felt his eye involuntarily twitch. "Fine," he muttered in defeat. He cleared his throat. "Sakura, would you—"_

_ "Oh, and you have to say 'pretty please with cherries on top,'" Sakura added with a smile that was even visible in the dark. _

_ Sasuke felt his jaw drop. (This is bad; Sakura's _changing_ him!) "Sakura—"_

_ "Only if you want me to be yours."_

_ The raven-haired man gritted his teeth. Slowly he felt his dignity slipping away. He sighed before turning his childhood friend around by the shoulders and staring right into her green eyes that shone brightly under the moonlight. "Sakura," he began, swallowing his Uchiha pride, "I want you to be my girlfriend." The young man tried to force the creeping heat that threatened to claim his face away. "So…will you _please_..."_

_ Sasuke swore he saw her smiling in the dark. "Please with what, Sasuke-kun?"_

_ The raven-haired man swallowed back his pride. '_She is going to owe me _so_ much…'_ he mentally growled before he continued his little cheesy speech. "Will you please…with _cherries on top_," he spat out, "go out with me?" He waited silently in the darkness, still battling that wave of heat that was slowly creeping up his neck on threatening to claim his cheeks. In the darkness, he let his gaze land on the rosette that sat on the other bench away from him. Too far away for his liking. "Sakura?"_

_ "Hm?"_

_ "Will you go out with me?"_

_ The rosette turned to him, the shadows of night barely hiding that brilliant smile of hers. "I don't know, Sasuke-kun… I mean, I have all of these fanboys that want to go out with me, too, and I can't just say no to them—"_

_ "Sakura," the young man said sternly, his obsidian orbs flashing dangerously. Those black pools spoke for him, pushing for her to answer his question._

_ The pink-haired girl made a humming sound. "Hmm…" She placed a finger to her rosy lips. Sasuke eyed them hungrily. Then, a decision made up, she turned her emerald orbs to him and smiled again. "Okay, Sasuke-kun!" she chirped. "I'll be your girlfriend." With it being official, the rosette finally went back over to her now _real_ boyfriend (no more of that fake relationship crap) and sat with him comfortably in that position that they had once been in. _

_ But that adorable moment only lasted for a few. Knowing that it was already well past midnight, the two of them clambered over to Sasuke's black car. Sakura slid into the passenger seat, the raven-haired man sliding into the driver's seat. He dug his keys into the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot to drive the rosette back to her dorm. For a while, they drove in silence… up until Sakura burst out in fits of giggles. _

_ Sasuke scowled at her as best he could while he kept his eyes on the road. "What are you laughing at?"_

_ Sakura struggled to speak through her laughter. Finally suppressing it well enough, she turned her smile to him, her green eyes sparkling like the gems they were. "You said 'please.'" Another laugh. "`With cherries on top!'" _

_(End flashback)_

Smirk. '_What a night that had been…'_ Sakura still owed him for saying that (even though he never really did find a punishment for her). The word that Sasuke and Sakura really _were_ official and were going out had spread all over campus after that, thanks to Naruto and surprisingly Shikamaru's big mouth. And since then, he had been fangirl-free. Sort of. Now, it was their third month together—a month that would end with the raven-haired man showing his affection for the first… er… girlfriend in his life? Whatever. All that he wanted to show Sakura (who had been bitching lately about him being "too apathetic" and "soooo not boyfriend-like") that he cared. Speaking about Sakura…. Sasuke sighed, rubbing his gloved hands together to make some extra warmth. "C'mon, Sakura…" he muttered. "What's taking so long?"

As if on cue, the pink-haired girl that was currently on his mind burst through the dorm doors into the outside wintery weather. A bright smile was painted on her face, her emerald eyes twinkling brightly as though the stars were built into them. Sasuke eyed her clothing, making sure that she was warm enough. The rosette had donned on a warm sweater, a semi-heavy overcoat placed over it. A plaid scarf was wrapped tightly around her neck, her gloved hands holding on tightly to it. His eyes slowly grazed over to her skinny pants that looked warm enough (even though he heavily doubted it) and finally to her boots that hugged to her feet. Satisfied, Sasuke put on his usual demeanor. "Hn," he sneered at his girlfriend, "Took you long enough."

Sakura pouted. "Mou, Sasuke-kun. It was your fault that you waited for me." She stuck her tongue out at him childishly.

Sasuke smirked, leaning in toward her face… and licking her tongue. The simple action made both of them surprised. Sasuke especially. Why in the _world_ would he _do_ that?

The rosette pulled back, her face flushed with a color that matched her hair. "Ew, Sasuke-kun! That's so gross!" That was one of the few times that her dear boyfriend had actually showed her some kind of affection this past month. Well, affection that made her feel so… er, ahem. Moving on!

Smirk. "Don't stick your tongue out next time." He eyed her again with those ever-melting onyx orbs of his. "Did you bring your iPod?" Sakura pulled out her iPod in response.

The raven-haired man nodded once. "Good." He walked over to the passenger side of the car, opening it up and wordlessly motioning for Sakura to get in. The rosette silently complied, sliding into the passenger seat. She pulled out her beloved iPod, holding it like a mother would hold a dear child.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun," she said quietly, sounding a little too much like Hinata, "why do we have to bring my iPod?"

The raven-haired man, his car already in ignition and already driving out of the parking lot, stayed silent, only a smirk playing on his handsome face. "Plug it in to the stereo."

Sakura blinked, trying to comprehend what Sasuke had said. "Ehhh?" she sputtered out, absolutely confused. "My iPod?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes before returning them to the road. "No, Sakura, my _foot_. Yes, your iPod!"

The pink-haired girl puffed out her cheeks before doing as he said. Jeez! Could you ask for a more pushier, stuck-up, arrogant bastard for a boyfriend? Sakura smiled to herself as she started on plugging her iPod in. Even though Sasuke had a "Can't Touch This" aura about him and was cold enough to make the devil run with his tail between his legs before he could say "Fuck off," Sakura knew that it was really all an act to hide the caring person he really was inside (**A/N:** Don't think he's caring? Wanna see the other previous chapters?). '_That's what made me fall for him in the first place…'_

Plugging it in successfully, Sakura took a look at her iPod, trying to find a good song that would fit the mood. A title stood out in her favorites.

**Lovers in Japan**

**By Coldplay**

Sakura smiled. What a fitting name, ne? She clicked the play button, placing it in one of Sasuke's car cupholders and leaning back in the passenger seat to listen to the song. The opening to the song played beautifully, a good tempo with an upbeat instrument in the background.

Sasuke, at a red light, took his gaze off the road and looked at his girlfriend momentarily, giving her one of his raised eyebrows. "Wha—"

"Shush, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said exasperatedly, placing a small, delicate finger to his lips. "Just listen." And so, the song continued happily, an instrument that sounded closely like a piano playing before the voice of a young man came up through the speakers at the now green light.

_**Lovers, keep on the road you're on**_

_**Runners, until the race is run**_

Sasuke continued to drive with an indifferent expression on his face, slowly taking the car up a winding mountain side. He watched the rosette from the corner of his eye, watching her bob her head to the music and humming to the tune.

_**Soldiers, you've got to soldier on**_

_**Sometimes, even the right is wrong…**_

The black car drove up slowly up the mountain side, letting the smell of nature come into play as Sakura (always being the adventurous one) rolled down the window to let in the cold air of the morning visit Sasuke's car. The girl took in the beautiful scenery that awaited her, the beautiful luscious pine trees, the blankets of snow that seemed to paint the once verdant green meadows white… and Sakura could swear she could see the college campus from where they were at.

_**They are turning my head out to see what I'm all about**_

_**Keeping my head down to see what it feels like now**_

_**But I have no doubt**_

_**That one day we're gonna get out…**_

Sakura smiled at the man next to her, her emerald eyes gleaming in the wintery light. "Look, Sasuke-kun! We can see the campus from here!" The rosette pointed to the small but visible spot of familiar land that stood below the winding path they were currently on.

Sasuke smirked at her childish antics. "I think I can see that through my mirrors." The car took a sharp swerve before finally stopping. Just before Sakura could open her mouth and nag him about "enjoying the view," Sasuke had her eyes covered with a blue blindfold.

"Wha—Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled furiously, pounding her fists against her seat. "What is the _meaning _of this?" Anyone looking at the rosette could swear they saw smoke barely visible streaming from her ears. "What are you _doing_?"

The rosette felt a pair of lips press against the shell of her ear, the warmth of the breath chilling her skin, making Sakura shiver involuntarily. Sasuke's voice resonated in her ear. "I'm taking you on a date."

Sakura extended her arms out in front of her, half of her body already out of the car. She groped around the air to find her boyfriend. "Sasuke-kun, can you help me out?" she asked, scared of tripping… and falling… and dying because of the snow and ice that Mother Nature had decided to spew out. Stupid winter… why plan for a three month anniversary? They hadn't exactly done anything for the first two months… just sat around and listened to everyone else around them gossip about how "cute" they looked together or stuff like that….

Instead of hearing a typical annoyed "Hn" from the raven-haired man, Sakura let out a squeak as she felt two strong arms scoop her up and carry her bridal style. Despite the blue blindfold temporarily blocking out everything, the rosette felt warm breath fanning her face as Sasuke's strong arms held her.

She blushed at the tickling sensation of his warm breath on her skin. "Sa-Sasuke-kun…"

"Does this count as helping you out?" A hint of a smirk (oh, that stupid trademark smirk that always made her melt on the inside—not confessing it to him, that was for sure) was heard in the raven-haired man's voice.

The rosette just nodded dumbly, feeling her face continually heat up. "Ah, Sasuke-kun…" she began. "Can you put me down somewhere? Somewhere where it's not cold and snow-ish, please?" Slowly, she felt the man walk on the snow, the white powdery part of nature crunching below his feet. Sakura let out a sigh of relief as she felt Sasuke place her on a bench, leaning her back against the back of the sitting device she was oh-so-thankful for.

The raven-haired man untied the blue blindfold from her head, relieving it from her and giving her a chance to see where the hell they were. Sakura blinked a couple of times, trying to focus on making the scary brightness that swamped at her eyes go away. Finally able to see, the rosette turned her gaze to their location… and gasped.

The greenest pine trees stood around them, making a sort of border around what seemed to be a shining lake, frozen over with the touch of Mother Nature's icy lips. Around the edge of the frozen lake were piles of white snow, a large, bare tree hovering over a side of the lake. It was a Winter Wonderland. Sakura looked at the man next to her with those gleaming green eyes.

Sasuke was holding a pair of ice skates, white and small enough for a certain rosette's feet to fit in. "Here," he monotoned, shoving the white pair of ice skates to her. Sakura looked down at his feet to find black ones already on. She let her gaze run back to his face.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun," she spoke hesitantly as she held on tightly to the pair of white ice skates, "I've never ice-skated before…" She pushed a lock of pink hair out of her face. "And I don't know how to put these on…."

A smirk. "Then I'll teach you." Sasuke knelt down before her, grabbing the white skates out from her hands. He took off her boots wordlessly, feeling her gaze on him. Sasuke methodically laced the white skates on her feet and then, after placing her boots in the car, pulled her by the hands to stand up from the bench. The rosette let out a squeak as she wobbled from the imbalance she felt as she tried to stand on those stupid blades. Afraid to fall, she tried to hold on to the raven-haired man's jacket. But she didn't have to. Sasuke was holding her, supporting her as he slowly led her over to the frozen lake near the bare tree that stood to a side.

Holding just one of her hands, Sasuke stepped onto the ice. "Hold on to one of the branches of that tree," he ordered her. Sakura reached out and grasped a branch with those small hands of hers, her grip tightened on Sasuke's hand.

"Um, Sasuke-kun, how are we going to do this?" she asked timidly. She had never exactly done this before and Sakura (always being the perfectionist) was absolutely afraid of trying new things… especially things that involved slippery ice, blades that could cut your throat with the slightest pressure, and physical activity. Which was why P.E. was her worst subject. But, that's another story….

"Let go of the branch and grab onto my other hand," Sasuke replied monotonously. He kept his emotionless eyes trained on her, his feet absolutely still on the icy surface of the frozen lake.

Sakura followed his instructions, each one of her hands in each of his.

Her inner self sighed. _**'Isn't this romantic? Sasuke-kun is holding hands with us!'**_

Sakura let out a laugh at her inner self, keeping her eyes on the man she had eyes for her entire life. As they spun around in circles on the frozen body of water, the rosette realized something. Her smile grew on her face (as if that was possible) before she let out a giggle.

The raven-haired man gave her an annoyed glare. Hadn't he told her how much he _hated_ being laughed at? "What is it?"

The rosette gave another giggle, trying to keep her balance on those death blades called skates. "I just realized something…" Another giggle. "In Star's _Your Ex-Lover is Dead_ music video, they were spinning on ice like this, too!"

"Hn."

Sasuke moved his feet, his hands still holding on to Sakura's, pulling her along as he skated backwards quickly. The rosette's eyes widened as she watched Sasuke turn his head over his shoulder to steer himself.

"Sa-Sasuke-kun!" Sakura stuttered out nervously, itching to slow down. "Stop! This is scary!" Her small hands clenched tighter on his in fear of falling flat on the frozen surface of the lake. She met her gaze with his, her emerald eyes flashing with horror and childish fear. "Sasuke-kun, please!"

The raven-haired man gritted his teeth, ignoring the clenching muscle in his chest at the sound of despair in her voice. He slowed his pace, the blades of his skates scraping against the surface of the lake. Sasuke kept his hold on her hands as he slowly made his way around the frozen lake. Smirk. "Is this good enough?"

Embarrassed at her little outburst, the rosette gave a timid nod before easing the grip on his hands. She let out a sigh of relief. '_Glad that's over…'_

Oh, but it really wasn't. Sasuke, with that trademark smirk on his face, spun her around so that her back was pressed against his toned chest, his arms slowly moving down her sides to wrap around her waist.

Sakura gasped. "Sasuke-kun! Stop that!" she whined, still not yet recovered from the shock she had earlier. Slowly, the couple made their way around the frozen lake, Sasuke's arms wrapped around the rosette as they moved backwards on the ice. Sakura felt her face heat up despite the contrasting cold air on her cheeks. What a pretty way to show his affections, don't you think? She buried her face in his neck, her warm breath tickling his skin. "Sasuke-kun…" she whispered.

"Hm?"

She smiled into his neck. "Can you teach me how to skate by myself?"

As the two of them neared the bare tree that stood by a side of the frozen lake, the raven-haired man took one of her hands in his, letting her hand wrap around the tree branch nearby. He slowly pulled himself away from her. Her green eyes followed him innocently, a lost expression on her face. "Sasuke-kun," she began, trying to reach back for him. "What are you doing?"

A smirk played on his lips. "Trying to teach you how to skate." He let the blades carry him about a yard's distance away from her, stopping when he found it a good distance for her to start at. Sasuke extended his toned arms towards her. "Now move your feet and try to come toward me." He waited as the pinkette hesitantly moved her feet, sliding slowly across the ice toward him.

Sasuke slowly pushed himself a teeny bit away from her as she continued to inch toward him, a smirk toying on his lips. The rosette stopped midway, letting her bottom lip protrude and her brow to create a crease, a childish pout playing on her face. She let out a whine.

"Sasuke-kun! That's not fair!"

Smirk. "Then hurry up and learn."

Quickly, Sakura was able to pick up on learning the basics of skating, managing to hold herself up on those killer blades that sliced along the surface of the frozen lake as she was now currently speeding away from the raven-haired man that was chasing her. She laughed, skating as if she had done it for years. Sakura spun around on her skates about to tell Sasuke that he was going to have to try harder than that to catch her… only to meet a face that was inches away from her. And coming in _fast_. It all happened in a few moments, Sasuke's body colliding with hers as the both of them landed on a convenient pile of snow near the edge of the frozen pond. Their bodies tangled up in each other's… until they realized that they were in a very… awkward position. And that was an _understatement_.

The rosette, shocked out of her mind, was lying underneath a certain raven-haired man, her hands sprawled above her head like her waves of pink locks. Sasuke had his body pressing hers into the snow, only their thick clothing separating them. His strong arms were placed on either side of her head. Their eyes were locked in a staring match, emeralds against obsidian. Their lips were a mere inch apart. If only ol' Sakura lifted her head up _just_ a little bit….

But then again, she didn't have to. The raven-haired man, pushing his stoic demeanor aside, lowered his own head and gently pressed his lips to hers. Again and again he kissed her on that pile of snow, surprising the both of them. At the side of the girl's head, their hands intertwined. Sakura smiled into the kiss, giggling as Sasuke's lips trailed around her jaw and slowly made their way down her neck and to her collarbone.

"What's so funny?" he growled as he sucked on her collar. He took his eyes off of the part where his lips had made their mark and let his onyx orbs gaze into those of the girl's. Sasuke narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his girlfriend.

Sakura gave another laugh as Sasuke placed his lips on the pulse of her neck. "That tickles!" Another giggle.

"Hn." The raven-haired man smirked. There was another reason on why Sakura was so appealing to him. But he would tell the rosette all of that later on… Sasuke took a look at the already darkening sky. Smirk. Perfect. Right on time. Slowly, he pulled himself off of the pink-haired girl, smirking at the frown that she gave him. Sasuke grabbed her by the hand, tugging her up and leading her over to the car.

She gave him a look of pure innocence. A look that made him want to place his lips on her neck and keep on… ahem. Moving on…

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura voiced, "where are we going now?" Sasuke stared into those captivating green eyes that he had sung about three months ago.

Smirk. Sasuke pulled her into the passenger seat, replacing the blindfold on her without a say. He placed his lips near her ear. "You'll find out soon enough, _Sa_-_ku_-_ra_…"

As Sasuke drove away from the ice-y pond that would hold memories forever, he swore he felt his cherry blossom shiver…

A smirk crossed his face. '_And I doubt it was from the cold…'_

**-xxx-**

"Keep that blindfold on, Sakura." The raven-haired man led her over to the small site where they would finish up their little three-month-anniversary date. She held his hands, helpless as a toddler learning to walk.

"Where the hell are you _taking_—Eep!" The rosette slipped on a tree root, tumbling forward, expecting to be met with cold, icy snow to her face as she felt herself falling, falling, falling… being caught? Two warm arms wrapped around her.

"Tch. Stupid, watch where you're going next time."

Of course…

Sakura pulled away from him, thanking him silently as he continued to lead her to the next destination of their little date. Speaking of which…

The rosette's heart pounded against her chest. Already she felt her face heating up from the thoughts that were swarming at her memory bank at the thoughts of her usually stoic boyfriend showing the most passion she had ever seen from him in all her years of knowing him. Her mind wandered to the events that had happened earlier, the ice skating, the embarrassing fall in the snow… that lusty kiss that made her want to press her hands into those spiky locks of his and moan her heart out for him…. Seriously…

_Where the hell was the ice cube she had known?_

Not that she didn't like this Sasuke…

"Alright. You can take it off now." Sakura felt arms unwrapping the blindfold from her face. It was rather dark now and she could already see the stars flickering in the dark sky. Her eyes fell upon a sort of picnic type thing… probably set up by none other than the young Uchiha himself.

'_He did all of this… for _me_…'_ Sakura shook her head, a smile toying at her lips. She turned over to the raven-haired man with a smile. "Sasuke-kun…" It was a terrible loss for words. "This is all…" She exhaled, overwhelmed. "_Beautiful_."

Sasuke turned away from her, keeping his eyes trained on the little picnic he had set up for the two of them under the now starry night. "Just sit down."

Way to be romantic, Romeo…

They sat and ate their food silently, Sakura always keep her eyes trained on him and Sasuke… just being Sasuke. The food was all eaten, and Sakura, feeling that there should be just a _teeny_ bit more conversation, started to speak. "Sasuke-kun—"

"Take out your iPod." The raven-haired man stared blankly at the sky.

The rosette blinked. "Huh?"

Sasuke turned to face her fully now. "Take out your iPod. I want to show you a song."

Silently she acquiesced, handing over her precious little baby to her dear boyfriend. "What is _this_ all about?" Sakura asked as he gently placed the pink ear phone into her ear. She blushed when he tucked a lock of her pastel pink hair behind her ear, feeling the crimson shade flow to practically every single part of her body.

She watched as Sasuke ran his thumb along the touch pad of the iPod, searching for a song methodically. Just before he was about to hit the play button, he turned to her with his trademark smirk plastered onto his face. "Do you like math?"

A frown crossed her face. "Eh? Math?" Why the hell would anyone ever ask you _that_?

The raven-haired man nodded, his obsidian eyes still locked on hers in a trance. "Yes. Math."

Sasuke smirked as he saw that innocent look of confusion still welded to her pale face. "Hn," went a grunt from him, "You'll see why I asked in a moment." And with that, he clicked the middle button, beginning a song that made Sakura nearly smack herself for not seeing what he had meant before. A beautiful acoustic began to play in the background.

'_Wait a minute…'_ Sakura thought, her green eyes slightly widening, '_I know this song…'_

_**Give me more lovin' than I've ever had**_

_**Make it all better when I'm feelin' sad**_

_**Tell me when I'm special even when I know I'm not…**_

As the man's voice continued on with those heartwarming lyrics, Sasuke smirked as he saw his girlfriend's emerald eyes widen his way as if saying, "Wait a minute, I know this song!" The raven-haired man gave another smirk. He hadn't chosen this song for nothing. It was a song that he knew that Sakura would be able to listen to whenever she could (seeing that it was her iPod) and think of him saying the words he could never seem to say himself. And those words were now coming up in the chorus.

_**There's only one thing "two" say, **_

_**Three words, "four" you!**_

"_**I love you"**_

_**There's only one way "two" say those three words**_

_**And that's what I'll do**_

_**I love you**_

As the music continued to play, the rosette gazed up into the stars as the night claimed the sun's light in the distance, putting out those colors that the sun had so beautifully made for them to see. It had been such a stunning day for the both of them, finally a day that they were using to celebrate their time together. The stars in the sky twinkled brightly as if smiling upon the rosette herself for a job well done.

Sasuke, feeling as though he had lost the rosette's attention, turned his head to look at her as nonchalantly as he could… only to have his breath catch in his throat when he laid his eyes upon her. An almost blank yet thoughtful expression painted her visage, her mouth slightly parted as if she were going to speak. Her once neat-looking hair had been blown into chaotic proportions by the wind. Those green eyes of hers danced like emerald jewels as they watched the diamonds in the sky. Why hadn't he seen her like this before?

'_Because you were too dense to have seen anything, you prick.'_ He felt himself twitch at the little voice in his head, almost speaking aloud to it to voice a "Shut up." Way to be harsh.

"Sasuke-kun…"

The raven-haired man snapped out of his little trip to La-La-land, realizing that he had been staring at the rosette for quite some time. But that didn't seem to bother her the slightest bit. In fact, Sakura hadn't even _noticed._ She had just said his name as she continued to stare up into the twinkling stars. "What is it, Sakura?"

Her voice was quiet, almost completely hushed. "Thank you for taking me on this date." She turned to him now, staring deep into those seemingly bottomless pools of ink for eyes, giving him a kind smile of fondness. "I can't believe you did this all for me."

Sasuke scowled in response, trying to make up for the warmth the he felt was slowly creeping into his cheeks. Hopefully the dark hid the blush on his face…. "Hn."

But, being Sakura, the rosette saw everything. She giggled as he laid on the checkered spread they had used as a picnic blanket, smiling at him when she saw that he was trying to look as indifferent as possible, staring up into the stars without a care in the world. Sakura laid her head down on his chest, following his gaze to stare up into the twinkling diamonds that spotted the night sky.

"You know," the rosette murmured quietly, "I always wanted to do this."

She heard Sasuke's typical "Hn" reverberate in his chest before she heard him ask, "You've always wanted to come to Konoha University to get stalked by my fangirls and unexpectedly get me to become your fake, now real boyfriend?"

The pink-haired girl gave a very unlady-like snort. "No, silly goose," she laughed out loud, tilting her head up to watch his expression as she playfully poked him in the cheek. "I mean that I've always wanted to watch the stars with someone special. You know," she continued, trying not to make it awkward, "to have a romantic scene…."

Sakura didn't notice that Sasuke, after hearing that little dream of hers, had slowly gotten his infamous smirk back on his face, a plan already forming in that head of his. What a mystery he was…

It wasn't until she felt him wrap his arms around her waist that she became startled. "Sa-Sasuke-kun, what are you doing?"

When he didn't answer, Sakura leaned her head back to stare up at him from the spot on his chest… only to have obsidian eyes stare back at her. Realizing that smirk and that hooded look to his eyes, the rosette gasped, almost about to sit up…

Only to be pushed on her back to the checkered blanket and have a smirking Uchiha above her.

Sakura puffed out her cheeks. "Sasuke-kun! What in the world do you think you're _doing_?"

Smirk. Sasuke lowered his face down so that their noses were touching. "Giving you a romantic scene." Before Sakura could say another word, he let his head drop so that their lips crushed together. He steadied himself, hovering over her with both of his arms placed on either side of her head for support.

If anyone had been watching them from the snow-covered meadow below, they would see two figures kissing under the moonlight on a checkered blanket, one with midnight hair and another with pink hair. The man in the moon almost seemed to smile down on them as the nearby stars twinkled for their happy ending.

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:** Wow. This took me longer than I thought it would. Heh-heh. Anyway, I'm not done yet. Still want to put in a little dash of irony, slight mini-tragedy, and then a happy ending and an epilogue before I officially finish. :) So yeah. Hope you enjoyed that. ;)

Now let's see… what to do for a review scenario….

I'll just say that if you review, review, review, you'll get another chapter out of me. No scenario this time! Peace out! And stay peachy! :D

Oh, and thanks again to my awesome friend Karli (randomwhiteasiansFTW XD) for giving me the most awesome-sauce songs ever! Changing the way the world views music.

You guys have some songs you want to get into this story? Go ahead and recommend some! I'll see if I like them and if I do, then I'll put it/them in! :D What are you waiting for?

_Review, review, review~_

And then let me have at it with more music! :D


	10. iRonic, Ain't It?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's Note: **Alright… I'll admit it. I had some serious writer block with this chapter. (sighs) But! Nevertheless, I have managed to pull it off! Ha-ha! And now, ladies (probably not gentlemen, but just acknowledging them if they really do read fanfiction), I present to you another chapter of iSakura! WH00T WH00T! Thank you all who have recommended songs. I have listened to them and chosen some. They definitely helped. ;) Thanks.

**Warning:** Really fluffy. Lots of boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. And a terrible twist at the end.

**Chapter 10**

**iRonic, Ain't It?**

**-xxx-**

"Sakura, have you and Sasuke done it yet?"

Said rosette choked on the coffee she was sipping on and coughed. Hard. Once she had her lungs back on track, she gave her blond friend wide eyes. "_What?_"

Ino continued as if she hadn't heard her friend choking. "Have you and Sasuke done it yet?"

Sakura felt her jaw drop to the floor. "_Excuse me?_"

A sigh was heard from the other side of the table. Karin pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and slammed her coffee cup down. "Here, Ino, I'll translate: slept with him, made love, did the nasty, done it, "wrestled," moved bases, given him the time, fu—"

The rosette covered the redhead's mouth before she could say the next crude word. A helpless look crossed her face. "C'mon, you guys, isn't this just a _little_ too personal?"

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Come on, Sakura, you two are _together_ now. And this"—she gestures to the dorm room—"is _college_." She let her baby blue eyes land on her pink-haired friend before pointing an accusing finger at her. "And _you_, my dear friend, are a beautiful, intelligent, twenty-four-old who is totally capable of making her own decisions, one of which includes being someone who spends intimate time with her sex god of a boyfriend."

Sakura let out a sigh. "But this is a personal matter!" she exclaimed, flustered, "you can't just decide _for_ me on this thing! I mean…" Sakura fidgeted, resembling her other friend Hinata. "What if I'm not, you know… _ready_?"

Karin decided to butt in, pretending that Sakura hadn't exactly said anything like a best friend would. She sighed, once again putting down her cup of coffee before blurting out crudely, "Sakura, you'll know. You know, you really need to learn how to lose your virginity properly."

"_Karin!_" Sakura shouted out, her eyes the size of saucers now.

The redhead smirked, a hint of mischievousness in her eyes. Again, she ignored the poor rosette's cry of aghast-ness. "Have you made your dear Sasuke-kun hungry with lust yet?"

Ino snickered, nudging Karin with her elbow and winking suggestively. "Probably." She gave a dramatic sigh. "Poor Sasuke! Deprived of his dear Cherry Blossom's love!" Ino clasped her hands together in front of her face, feigning compassion. "Sakura, you must save him from his love deprived state!"

"In other words," Karin cut in, "jump him. Show your sex god what you're made of." Smirk. "Ino and I have already done the deed with our dear beloveds." She leaned her cheek against her open palm, holding up the coffee cup to her lips, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

The pinkette blushed the color of Karin's hair. "Shut up," she muttered, standing up from the table to grab a scarf and her book bag. "I'm heading over to Sasuke's room," she said, grabbing her iPod and keys. "Be back… sometime later." As quickly as she could, Sakura speed-walked over to the door, yanked it open, and, closing the behind her, noisily dashed down the hall, shoes thumping.

Once the two heard her footsteps receding, they exchanged nefarious grins. Karin picked up her coffee cup and brought it to her lips, a smirk slowly tugging at them. "Blondy, we have _got_ to get her and Sasuke to do it!"

Ino nodded in agreement. "Else they'll be poor, sex-starved creatures forever." She made a trail from the corner of her eye to her chin with a slender finger, making one of those sad faces that always got to Shikamaru's heart whenever he saw it. "It's so sad, Four-Eyes!" she wailed dramatically. "They'll never be able to do it with Sakura's stubborn mindset."

Karin walked over to the mail pile that she had picked up earlier in the morning and rustled through it. "Hey, Blondy, do you think Sasuke would send her a love letter?"

"Hell to the no!" Ino giggled blondishly as she pranced over to where her redheaded friend stood, eyeing a small envelope that had this printed on it in neat letters:

_Haruno Sakura_

_Konoha University, Dorm Room 401_

There was no sender information on the outside. Only a small green globe with a large green dot in the middle that was divided by several green lines and a stamp that was eerily familiar were on a corner of the envelope.

Karin raised an eyebrow. "Hey," she started, looking carefully at the green globe, "I know this stamp…"

"What stamp?" Ino asked, walking over to where the redhead stood to look over her shoulder at the envelope. She regarded the green globe stamp. Her eyes widened. "Oh, my God…" she breathed, placing a hand up to her open mouth in shock. "Oh, my God…" Ino took the envelope from Karin's hands, brushing her fingers along the green globe with the letters "_T. U._" and the crimson icon with the initials "_H.U."_

The redhead and the blonde exchanged looks of uncertainty and curiousity. "Ino," Karin began, keeping her gaze steadily on the envelope, "should we—?"

"Let's open it." The blonde didn't wait for an answer from her redheaded friend and slowly, very slowly, began to carefully cut through the opening of the envelope. Unfolding the piece of stationery, she took a breath before opening her deep, blue eyes and reading the letter silently. Karin looked over. Slowly, she let her gaze slip, her face turning grave and tired as if she hadn't gotten enough sleep the previous night.

After moments of silence, a wet drop appeared on the paper. _Plop. Plop_. Another few drops. Slowly, Ino folded up the piece of paper. She looked over to Karin, her eyes suspiciously wet before wiping her own eyes. Silently, she treaded back to the table for her cup of coffee. Her legs fell heavily against the wood floors.

Sitting there on the top of the mail desk was the opened letter. And on the letter at the top left hand corner read the words:

_Tokyo University_

_Harvard University_

**-xxx-**

Frost covered the corners of the windows. It was early in the Sunday morning for the students of Konoha University, about nine or ten o'clock. Sasuke's house was practically completely devoid of any sort of life besides him and a certain pink-haired girl next to him on the floor.

Our heroine and hero had taken time off their studies to play a little game of Tangle (**A/N:** It's a cousin game of Twister XD), the mat spread neatly across the wooden floor of the living room in preparation of the upcoming game. Sasuke and Sakura sat nearby, their books and notebooks open and pens and pencils at hand.

"Alright," Sasuke monotoned, placing the pen to his lips, "let's see if I have this." Picking up his note papers, he cleared his throat and began to list out a number of things. "So your favorite color is red…"

"Uh-huh…"

"Favorite book is _Jane Eyre_."

"Yuppers."

"Favorite food is red bean soup." The raven-haired man let the corners of his lips tilt up in an amused fashion. "But you hate spicy foods because of an incident that happened when you were little." A raised eyebrow and a cocky smirk were all that it took to make Sakura pout in defense.

"Mou, Sasuke-kun, you can't blame me!" she exclaimed, socking him playfully in the shoulder. "It was too spicy!"

"Hn. Not my fault you thought the wasabi was green tea ice cream," he responded, glancing back at his notes to escape the pull of her deep, green eyes. "And you have hydrophobia…" He gave a deadpan look to his pink-haired girlfriend. "Did I miss anything?"

The rosette placed a finger to her lips, narrowing her eyes in a thinking fashion. "Hmm…Nope!" she cheerfully chirped. "I think that's it!" Sakura put down her pen and notes on the ground. Then, when all else was set and done, she turned her attention back to the handsome young man next to her and gave him a smile.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" He had managed to grab a lock of Sakura's hair between two of his fingers, twisting and untwisting the pink hair while he kept his gaze on her.

The pinkette gave him another smile, sliding over towards him and taking his hands in hers, shaking them around childishly. "We're all done, Sasuke-kun!" Her eyes met his, emerald clashing with onyx. "That means we can play Tangle now!" She smiled again when she felt her boyfriend's hand affectionately grazing the soft skin of her arms. "Wouldn't you like that?"

"Hn," the raven-haired man let out as he let his hand forage the beautiful, pale, creamy skin of the girl that had captured his attention since his fifth year in the world.

"Is that a yes or no?"

"…."

"Sasuke-kun!" the rosette whined in exasperation. Said man clamped a hand over her mouth, giving her a warning look that told her to be quiet. Mornings were always bad for him—he was never really a morning person and it made things even worse when his dear girlfriend was. Which was why he was feeling oh-so edgy this morning. He sighed before massaging one of his temples with his available hand. "You owe me so much for waking me up this morning…" he muttered as he kept his gaze on her.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun…" she murmured softly, holding his hand up to her face where the raven-haired man gently caressed it.

'_And I know exactly what she owes me…_' Smirk. "Hn." Sasuke pulled her in for a kiss, capturing her lips with his own.

The rosette, after getting over her initial shock, shyly kissed back. She smiled a little on the inside. '_When did he get so romantic?_' Now that she thought of it… it was only yesterday that he really showed how romantic and caring and loving he could be. '_That was such a beautiful date…_' Never thought he had it in him, ne? She smiled into the kiss and giggled, ruining the mood.

The raven-haired man pulled back, scowling. "What are you laughing at _this_ time?"

Sakura gave another laugh before giving her dear Sasuke-kun a peck on the cheek. "It's just that I was just thinking about you…"

Sasuke _hn_-ed again. "That's stupid. Don't you always?" he asked, giving her that stupid cocky smirk that she loved so much.

She playfully smacked him in the arm before leaning in to lay her head on his shoulder, intertwining her hand with his. "You know, if I told people that you were romantic, _no one_ would believe me."

"Hn." The raven-haired man gave another smirk, giving a hard tug on her hand… pulling her over to sit on his lap. The famous smirk lingered as Sasuke watched his cherry blossom blush multiple shades of pink. Slowly, he leaned in, the tip of his nose barely touching hers, his lips scarcely grazing hers, and his eyes…those deep onyx eyes that bore into her innocent emerald ones that stared back with wonder and unconditional love that seemed to be present since the beginning of time. The pinkette still had traces of color left in her cheeks. Smirk. "I don't see you complaining about my soft side," answered the onyx-orbed man, his breath fanning her face, his lips barely (just barely) touching hers. Just a little closer… and they would mold completely.

Sakura stared longingly at the handsome young man's lips before letting her green eyes return to the intense gaze of the young man's stygian eyes. Her rosy mouth parted, letting only one word out, complete with an honorific. "Sasuke-kun…"

At the sound of his name on her lips, Sasuke's breath hitched. Only _she_ could make him feel like that; only _she_ could make his heart pound so fast and only _she_ could take his breath away with that simple breathless way she said his name. He felt himself throbbing for her, his heart pounding in his chest as he struggled with himself to keep himself from going too far with her. Sakura wasn't ready yet. They both weren't ready for… _that next step_. He gritted his teeth, pulling himself away from her before he lost his mind. He wanted to kiss her a second time, to blow her mind away and make her want him. But if he did that… '_I wouldn't be able to control myself…_' he thought as he looked back to her, watching her watch him with those shining green gems for eyes.

Those shining gems that resembled jade or emerald or whatever else that shone like a green type of gemstone. Those eyes that stared back at him with the same intensity that his own did, pleading and wanting yet hesitant. Before he could lose his mind, he pulled away from her completely, walking over to the game mat and leaving a confused Sakura.

Her brow furrowed with confusion and frustration, her gaze slowly dropping down to her notes. She wasn't reading them, of course—just using them as a decoy. Make it _seem_ as if she was reading them. She held her pen in between both of her hands, staring at it glumly. Why the hell wasn't Sasuke kissing her like mad already? '_Is there something wrong with me?_' she asked herself. Her brow furrowed again. No, that couldn't be that. Sasuke had kissed her so many times already. There couldn't have been anything wrong with her.

Unless…

Her friend's words flashed through her head.

"_Have you made Sasuke hungry with lust yet?_"

"_Poor Sasuke, deprived of his Cherry Blossom's love!_"

Unless those words were true. She gulped. '_Does Sasuke-kun… _want _me like that?_'

"Sakura."

The sound of her dear boyfriend's voice snapped her out of her revelry. "Eh?" she let out, dragging her gaze away from her notes to stare at Sasuke who was now standing over the Tangle mat.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You playing?" he asked as he extended out a hand to pull her up, arrow board in the other hand.

A nod for a response and a smile on her face, Sakura stood up and walked over to the mat with him, beginning their game. Sasuke spun first, letting it land on a green for the left foot. He gave a smirk as he placed his foot on the given position, gesturing for the pinkette to do the same.

The rosette spun it… and frowned. "Right foot green."

A smirk. "Place your foot on the same one as mine," commanded the raven-haired man as he stared down at his girlfriend. She stuck her tongue out at him as she followed his lead, doing just as he said as she placed her foot on the same green spot as his left foot. The rosette gave him a playful smile as she handed him the arrow board, staring up at him as if challenging him to beat her in this game. Sasuke snatched the arrow board away from her, giving her a kiss on that large forehead he had learn to know and love before spinning again.

"Hn," he muttered as the arrow slowly slid to a stop. "Right hand red." The raven-haired man gave her his trademark smirk.

Sakura pouted, impatience clear on her features. "Oh, just hurry up and get on with it!" she said, pushing on his chest with both of her hands as hard as she could to get him to go on.

And what a hard push that was. In fact, it was hard enough to knock the Uchiha off balance, sending him backwards. But, thanks to his ninja-like reflexes (**A/N: XD**), Sasuke managed to land right on a red circle with (coincidentally) his right hand—without breaking any bones, thank you very much. That didn't mean that Sasuke wasn't mad, though. _That_ would be an absolute understatement. The young man scowled up at the pinkette, his dark, onyx orbs flashing dangerously as he gave her the biggest "Shoot-You-Dead" glare he could possibly muster. '_So, she's going to play that way?_' he mind-growled to himself as his eyes narrowed at her. '_Bring it…_' No way in _hell_ was some _girl_ going to fucking dominate him, _the_ Uchiha Sasuke, in a simple game of Tangle. He kicked the arrow board to her with his available foot. "Get on with it," growled Sasuke, already in his competitive guy mode and putting on his game face.

Sakura stuck out her tongue as she flicked the arrow, waiting for it to slide to a stop. All the while, she stood there, contemplating whether or not to toy with Sasuke's little want for her. After all, he _did_ make her wait four years for her. What was the harm in a little teasing? Surely nothing bad would happen. And Tangle was the best game for it. Oh, yes. Now all she needed to do was wait for the right moment. She watched as the arrow slowly slid to a stop. And grinned sinisterly. "Left foot red," she stated as-a-matter-of-factly as she stared at Sasuke in his awkward pose from the mat, his left root on green and his right hand on red.

Her eyes glinted mischievously as she lifted a leg and slowly put it down on a red circle… on the other side of Sasuke. Sakura smiled nefariously as she saw Sasuke's eyes widen a fraction from the proximity of their bodies, her bottom just hovering above his hips, practically straddling him.

Sasuke swallowed soundlessly, his heartbeat pounding faster by the second. Great. Just great. This was _exactly_ what he was trying _not_ to do: lose control and ravage his beautiful, perfect Cherry Blossom who smelled oh-so-sweet he could just… Ahem. Anyways… if Sasuke had any more tempting from her, he swore he would hardly be able to hold back. '_Don't do it,_' he thought, desperately, watching as Sakura's hips slowly gave out inch by inch. '_Don't do it…_' Then, she did what he hoped she wouldn't do: she sat down on him, irritatingly close to a male part.

'_What is she planning…?_' he asked himself as he gritted his teeth and flicked the arrow with his available hand, watching it spin and slowly slide to a stop. He gave it a glance, hoping to escape Sakura's beautiful green eyes. Hope came to him as he saw the result of the arrow board. "Left hand yellow," he stated as monotonously and indifferently as he could make it, really actually pretty glad that it was, in fact, a chance to move away from her blinding emeralds and shining, rosy hair. Everything was pretty good… up until Sakura chirped, "Left hand blue!" and reached behind him to place her left hand on a blue circle. By now, she was dreadfully close, her breath fanning on his face, tingling his lips and making him want to jump her and make her…

_Bzzt! Bzzt!_

Sasuke hissed as Sakura's cell phone (that just so happened to be in her pocket) vibrated against him, making it seem as though he was just annoyed by it… Yes, _just_ annoyed. Nothing else!

The rosette sighed, pulling away from her boyfriend to stand up and brush herself off, leaving Sasuke in a confused and dazed state. She pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and checked the Caller ID.

_M O M M Y H A R U N O_

Sakura frowned at the bolded words. '_Mommy? What's she doing calling?_' Only one way to find out… Pressing the pick up button, the rosette held the receiver to her ear. "Hello?" she spoke into the mike, sending Sasuke a glare when he muttered something about Sakura always making excuses and being a tease. She placed a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet.

After receiving a snort of what seemed to be acquiescence from Sasuke, Sakura turned back to the conversation on her phone. "Hello? Mom, is that you?"

"_Yes, honey, it's Mom._" The rosette smiled when she heard the smile in her mother's voice.

"Hi, Mommy!" Sakura chirped, giggling when she saw the scowl that settled on Sasuke's face at the choice of words. No response on the other line. The smile on the rosette's face slowly dissipated. Huh. Usually Mommy wasn't so quiet… unless… '_Unless something happened…_' The girl pushed her pink bangs out of her face. "Mama?" she called out, a little worried now at her mother's lack of words. "Is there something wrong? Did something happen to Daddy?"

The sound of her mother's ringing laughter brought Sakura back to Happy Land. "_No, dear, I was just about to ask you about how school was going._"

The rosette gave a frown. Huh. Suspicious… Mommy wouldn't just call to ask about her day. There had to be something behind it. But, being Sakura, she decided to play along until there was a better opportunity to confront her mother about what she _really_ wanted to talk about. "Oh, med school is fine," she answered, playing dumb. "You know, Mom, typical stuff happening, and all."

"_Uh-huh… Sakura, have you been going to those campus parties your father and I have been warning you about?_"

Crapsicles. "Er, no, Mommy-dearest, who is the most awesome-sauce mother that a daughter could ask for." Insert nervous laughter here. "Nope. No-sirree, no campus parties for this girl."

Sasuke gave a snort…. Receiving a hard punch from Sakura. He gave a hiss between his teeth. "Ow," he let out rather loudly. Oh, dear. Did _the_ Uchiha say _Ow_? Sakura levels up!

And is probably dead meat if her mother finds out that she has a boyfriend. Well, not so much dead meat. More like screwed with fussing from her mother and (because her mother finds out and will most likely tell her father about it) death threats from her father to Sasuke. Yum. Delicious-o. Which was also the reason why Sakura clamped a hand over the raven-haired man's mouth, silently hoping that her mother _did not_ (I repeat—DID NOT) hear that.

But, knowing how the Heavens loved to screw her over, her mother did hear. "_Dear? Who was that?_"

Sakura quickly regained her composure. "What was what, Mommy?"

"_Who was that who hissed and said 'Ow'? Don't tell me that you're reverting back to that stage where you—_"

"No, no, Mommy, it's nothing like that!" Sakura quickly interrupted. "There's no one here but me and my…study buddy."

A small moment of silence. "_Is your study buddy a boy?_"

"Er… yeah," the rosette replied, combing through her pink locks with her fingers. "I guess…"

Sasuke shot her a look. "I am _so_ a guy," he deadpanned, giving her one of his famous emotionless faces that held that hint of emotion behind it. "Don't you question my sexual ethnicity."

Sakura could hear the amusement in her mother's voice as she continued. "_Sounds like you've got yourself a winner._" Another pause. "_Say, that doesn't happen to be your boyfriend that I hear Ino talking about, is it?_"

Again: crapsicles. _So_ not awesome-sauce. The rosette gave a sweatdrop before resolutely making up her mind to remember to strangle Ino to death for spewing things out of her mouth that _shouldn't_ be spewed. "Er…"

"_Come on, dear, you don't have to be so shy about it._" Her mother gave a squeal. "_I can't believe it! My baby's grown up so fast!_"

Sakura heard Sasuke give another one of his snorts. "Uh, Mom—"

"_Who is he?_" her mother continued, practically squealing like one of Sasuke's fangirls, "_My, oh, my, Sakura, you have to bring him over! I'm sure your father will be very excited to see him!_"

The rosette gave a sweatdrop. Excited? Her _father_ about her once-childhood-friend-now-_boyfriend_? _Excited_ was a word that was far from her father's state if he had known that she had a boyfriend. More like… _homicidal_. Sakura cringed when she received the mental image of her father holding a gun and running around the house, chasing Sasuke down.

"_So, honey, what's his name?_" her mother inquired.

"Um—"

In one swift motion, the raven-haired man stole the small cell phone from her hand and smoothly said, "Hello, Mrs. Haruno. This is Sasuke. Remember me?"

"_Sasuke, dear?_" she heard her mother say. "_You aren't talking about Uchiha Sasuke, are you?_"

Smirk. "This is he," said man responded.

Then, the freakiest thing happened. Her mother _screamed_. Not one of those shocked gasps that you hear from typical middle-aged women, oh no. It was a full-out _scream_ that you hear from teenage girls when they see their ideal guy. And it scared the crap out of the both of them—well, mostly Sakura because it was her _mother_… Sasuke was just sitting there with that stupid smirk on his face. Finally, after a long awkward silence, Sakura's mother's voice came up again. "_Oh, my good_ness_, Sakura! I didn't know that you finally got him! You have _the_ Uchiha Sasuke as your _boyfriend_!_" A sigh came from the other side of the line. "_And to think that you two were little toddlers when you met each other._" She laughed. "_Really makes me think of the times when you two and that adorable Naruto spent time over at our house._"

Oh, right… that was right. Sakura smiled as she remembered the fond memories of inviting Sasuke and Naruto over to her house when they were in elementary school. Everything was so different back then. Sasuke had been so cheerful (well, more emotional than he was now) and Naruto—that dog—had such a large crush on her.

_(Flashback)_

_Summer had finally come for the three of them, the trio already having bonded through many months of school and fieldtrips. Sakura walked with a light, prancing step as the skirt of her uniform swished in the summer winds. Two boys, one blond and one raven-haired, walked on either side of her, garbed in the same sort of uniform as the girl. The blond boy grinned widely, his school bag dangling from his two hands behind his back. He gave the small rosette a little gaze of admiration, his cerulean eyes watching her short pink hair swing about her shoulders. "Say, Sakura-chan, can we celebrate the beginning of summer by spending time over at your house?" asked the blond boy. _

_ Sakura gave a small ringing laugh. "Hm. I don't know, Naruto." Another small laugh. She turned to the raven-haired boy that stood next to her, his handbag hanging from his right shoulder. "Would you want to come over, Sasuke-kun?"_

_ Sasuke looked over to her, eyeing her shining emerald orbs. "Hn…" he let out. "Okay." _

_ The rosette gave him a bright smile. "Okay then! Off to my house!" Sakura felt giddy inside, her insides flipping as she walked besides the two boys, gazing out at the raven-haired boy from the corner of her eyes. It wasn't like the two of them hadn't been to her house before. Sasuke had gone to her house so many times over the few years that they knew each other pretty well, so she felt comfortable with him around. Same with Naruto… the only thing she had to worry about was what would happen to the food in the refrigerator._

_ When the three of them finally reached Sakura's house, the rosette stepped into her house, taking off her shoes and placing them neatly besides the other pairs of shoes that her parents owned. "Hello?" she called into the house, gesturing for the two boys to follow her. "Mama! Daddy! I'm home! I brought Naruto and Sasuke over!"_

_ Her mother answered first, coming from her place in the kitchen to greet the two boys. "Hello, boys! So glad to see you again!" She gave them a small, motherly smile before returning to the kitchen. "I'll make you three some lunch." Before the three of them could voice their choices, Sakura's mother beat them to it. "Ramen for Naruto, onigiri and tomatoes for Sasuke, and some red bean soup for my dear Sakura." Not surprising. Naruto and Sasuke had been over so many times it was impossible _not_ to know._

_ Her father answered next from his place in the living room. "You boys better behave! Don't touch Sakura, you hear?" A gun cocking could be heard from where Mr. Haruno's voice came from. _

_ Little Sakura gave a small laugh as she slurped her delicious red bean soup. "Daddy! You don't have to say that every time they visit!"_

_ "Just to keep them from thinking about ever going out with you, hon," her father called back. The smirk in his voice was heard clearly as the sound echoed through the halls. _

_(End Flashback)_

Sakura smiled as she remembered all the countless times that Naruto and Sasuke had fought over whether or not ramen or onigiri was better. Those always ended in stalemates when Sakura's dad decided to break up the fistfight that always formed in the kitchen during lunch time, pointing his long shotgun in the faces of the two boys. That gun was never loaded, of course; it was just used to scare the boys out of their little arguments so that Daddy could have some peace and quiet.

"_Sakura, how about you and Sasuke come over today?_"

The rosette snapped back to reality. Where was she again? Oh, right: she was in this mansion of Sasuke's house in Konoha, Japan on planet Earth. Right. She turned back to her cell phone where her mother's voice pealed from. "Huh?"

"_It's Sunday, right?_" voiced Mama Haruno on the other line. "_Which means that you guys can make it over here._" A loud silence cut through the air before her mother's voice came back on in a more sly sort of tone. "_I've got something that'll help you bond~_."

"That's okay, Mom," the pinkette started, hoping that her mother wouldn't think of something intricate to so-call "strengthen her relationship" with Sasuke. "We just—"

"We'd love to, Mrs. Haruno," interrupted the forgotten raven-haired man next to her who had managed to pluck the cell phone from her grasp.

Sakura groaned to herself. '_No, not _him_, too…_' The rosette gritted her teeth in annoyance and worry. '_Those two better not be planning anything…_'

"_Really?_" replied her mother happily. Movement could be heard in the background from the receiving side of Sakura's cellular phone. "_Then I'll get the movie right now and tell Daddy!_"

Sakura suddenly felt the urge to slam her head on the nearby sofa over and over again and scream out dramatically to the ceiling about how she was having a "_Fuck my Life!_" moment.

Sasuke gave a smirk when he saw the rosette's eyes turned frightened and scared. He placed the cell phone up against his ear again. "Alright, then, Mrs. Haruno. We'll be right over." _Click_. Slowly, he turned back to meet the pinkette's gaze, smirking when he saw her jaw hanging out openly. The young man stood up, grabbing the Tangle mat and folding it neatly before putting it in the box and gathering his notebook and psychology textbook as casually as possible.

Sakura's expression stayed in disbelief. "Wha—what was _that_?" she spat out, staying rigid still on the floor, her head next to the sofa. Her hand had managed to grab his arm. "Sasuke, do you know what you just put yourself into?"

"Hn," he answered simply, still putting his things away.

"Sasuke, this is something serious!" she managed out, her grip on his arm turning vise-like. "You know my dad! He's got his shotgun collection at home and all and since we were kids, he's warned you to stay away from me!"

The raven-haired man raised an eyebrow. "I never stayed away from you though," he deadpanned, "and he didn't do anything." Sasuke let his gaze meet hers. "He won't do anything to me."

She fell silent, her gaze slowly slipping away from his. "You don't know that…" she murmured quietly as she let him tug her out of the house and towards his car. She didn't do anything as she sat there in the passenger's seat, holding on to her bag and blankly staring out of the window. '_You don't know that…_' she thought as she remembered the few days after the night that he had left Konoha.

_(Flashback)_

_A tub of ice cream sat by her bed side, slowly melting. The moon was out, shining brightly in the night sky. A pink-haired girl sat on the bed staring at an old picture. _

_ Three people were taken in the photo: two boys and a girl that had the same pastel pink hair and large jade eyes as her. The two boys looked like character foils of each other: the boy on the left of the girl had a brilliant smile, bright yellow spikes for hair, and blue eyes that sparkled with happiness; the boy on the right of her had a face was that was absolutely deprived of emotion, only a hint of a sort of smirk lingered, jet black hair spiked like a chicken's butt, and beautiful onyx orbs to match. Both boys stood beside the girl protectively as if trying to fend off anyone who dared to lay a hand on that pretty face that smiled with such blinding happiness, or on that petite figure that seemed fragile to the touch. Despite being made a sandwich between the two boys, the pinkette seemed very happy. _

_ Unlike her older look-alike sitting on the bed in the moonlight, staring at the picture. The dazzling emeralds that were once her eyes in the young picture were now just pools of green algae, sad and lifeless. It was two nights after the night he had gone. _'He's gone…'_ she thought, forcing herself to stifle her sobs. _'He's gone…' _She turned her attention away from the picture frame and looked out the window towards the sky where the man in the moon smiled down at her comfortingly, almost as if he was pained to see her this way and wanted to help._

_ She heard her door open, squeaking noisily on its hinges. She didn't even have to turn around to know who was there. _"Hi, Daddy,"_ she hushly said. _

_ Her father came around to her side of the bed, sitting himself right next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders in a fatherly way. The rosette leaned her head against his shoulder, keeping herself silent. _

_ It was the middle of the night and a father and daughter sat there on her bed, the father comforting her without words and the daughter struggling to contain her feelings for her father and for herself, to show the both of them that she was strong, that she was now an adult that could make her own choices, control her own feelings. _

_ Her father kept his arm wrapped around her shoulders, staring up at the moon with her. _"_You know, honey,_" _he whispered, _"_It's okay._" _He_ _looked at his daughter's eyes that mirrored his own green ones._ "_It's okay to cry._"

_ Sakura kept silent, only her tears speaking for her now as she leaned into her father's open arms and let out awkward, staccato sobs that showed her struggle, her pain. _"_I loved him, Daddy…_"_ she cried into him, trying to keep her sobs to a minimum._ "_And he left me…_"

_Her father gritted his teeth as he comforted his eighteen-year-old girl. _"_The next time I see him, I'll hurt him as much as he hurt you, honey._" _He pulled her away, staring at Sakura's depressed state, feeling a twinge of pain run through his heart as he saw his daughter waste away emotionally before his eyes. _"_Don't waste yourself for him like this, dear._"

_She didn't say anything intricate, anything extremely complicated that would make a man flail in confusion. All she did over and over again was cry into her father's shirt, letting him hold her as long as he could. _"_I love you, Daddy,_" _she cried, clutching his shirt, _"_I love you._"

_(End Flashback)_

After that, her father had bought her the iPod she had now and cherished so much, letting her take her mind off of that man that made her life miserable without his presence and her heart melt with just his words. Ever since that night, her father had told her that he would kill that raven-haired man if he heard that Sasuke was ever back in town. And now, the man who had been her friend and hurt her so much through the stitches of time was now the love of her life. '_Oh, boy… what's going to happen to _him _now?_' Sakura thought as she sank lower into her seat. Gotta love your daddies, huh?

"Sakura."

The rosette sat up stick straight in the passenger seat, shaking her head as she snapped back into the strings of reality. "Huh?" she blurted out dumbly as she looked to the handsome raven-haired man beside her.

Sasuke returned a smirk to her as he parked his car in front of a house. "We're here," he deadpanned as he stepped out of the driver's seat to walk over and open the door for Sakura.

He watched her take a deep breath before turning to him and giving him a wry sort of smile. "Are you ready for this, Sasuke-kun?"

Knowing the raven-haired man, she wouldn't have to ask, because all Sasuke did was return to her a smirk and one of his most well-known phrases: "Hn."

**-xxx-**

"Oh, my good_ness_, dear, I'm so happy that you finally got him!" Insert middle-aged squealing from Sakura's mom. The older woman was almost a carbon copy of the young rosette herself, the only difference being a different shade of hair and eyes. Her mother's hair shone coppery red, tied up tightly in a bun that made her look youthful (Shut up, Gai-sensei) and her age at the same time. Her mother's stormy gray eyes glinted beautifully with hope and clear pride at her daughter's catch. And for a proud mother, she was definitely at the top of the list…. Of proud mothers.

Sakura shrank in her seat at her mother's happiness. "Mom, it's okay, you don't have to make a fuss out of it…" Sure, she was glad that her mom was happy… er, with her happiness. But that didn't stop her from worrying about what her father would do.

Contrasting her mother's happy mood, her father sat back in his typical armchair, his natural white hair neatly trimmed around his face. He sat there, scowling at Sasuke with those green eyes that Sakura had inherited.

The raven-haired man wondered how such beautiful, emerald orbs like Sakura's could be inherited from such an angry-looking person.

Sakura's father finally spoke up. "So, you've decided to come back to Konoha." It was said as casually as possible, trying not to throw an unneeded spark anywhere. But although his voice held no malice against him, Sasuke and Sakura both saw that her father's eyes gave him away, the anger, the warning that flashed in his green eyes. The malice the both of them had seen disappeared instantly with a blink as the middle-aged man turned to his daughter. "Sakura, you said that Sasuke is now your"—her father made a face—"_boyfriend_?"

The rosette shifted uncomfortably in her seat before answering her father with a timid nod. "Yes, Daddy." She eyed the .45 caliber he held in his lap.

Her father caught her gaze and gave her an old smile. "Don't worry, dear, I won't shoot him with it." Oh, no. He wasn't going to shoot him with _that_. Her father's eyes glinted with something practically undetectable as he clutched at the gun in his lap. Mr. Haruno let his gaze slide over to the gun shack nearby, eyeing the new, long shotgun standing proudly on a stand. Note to self: don't ever visit the Haruno household without a will in hand.

Sakura's mother came out of the kitchen just in time. Knowing how Mr. Haruno was probably up to something, she wrapped her hands on his broad shoulders and murmured softly, "Dear, I think we should leave them alone now." Mrs. Haruno gave her husband's shoulders a gentle squeeze. "Why don't you give them that movie you wanted them to check out?"

The raven-haired man sitting across from them watched, seeing not a hint of malice in the middle-aged woman's eyes. All they were filled with was unconditional love and admiration of the elder man she lent her eyes to. His stomach twisted, thinking of how her mother eerily looked like the young rosette that sat next to him who was holding his hand. Sasuke's grip on Sakura's hand tightened, merely becoming a gentle squeeze before easing away. The sight of the older couple made Sasuke a little sad, remembering his parents.

Sakura caught this in her boyfriend's face, returning his gentle squeeze as she gave him a knowing smile and love that mirrored her mother's: unconditional and understanding.

The sound of a cocking gun shocked them out of their little reveries, making them look to Sakura's father who was now standing up. He stood tall and proud next to his wife as he stared down at his daughter with a tender expression. That expression hardened as he looked to the raven-haired man next to her, holding her hand. "Young man," her father spoke, his voice hard as rock, "if you ever hurt my daughter the way you did before, you will never live to see another day of your wretched life." His voice was a mere snarl by the end of his threat, filled with such raw emotion that it made Sasuke cringe.

Sakura's mother stepped in. "Alright then. We'll be in the kitchen and what-not, okay, dears?" She gave the both of them a motherly smile, gently tugging on her husband's arm and gesturing him into the kitchen. Before she left the room, she handed Sasuke a movie pact, winked at him, and then followed her husband out of the room.

The two sat there by themselves on the couch, staring at the title of the DVD. _The Shining._

"Based on the book by Stephen King, huh?" Sakura mumbled, plucking the case from Sasuke's hands and opening it to take out the disk. "Wonder what it's about…" she mumbled, placing it in the DVD player and pressing play.

Later, poor Sakura would have wished that she hadn't said that.

**-xxx-**

"_**GAHHH**_!"

The scream came from the rosette on the couch, clutching the emotionless man next to her.

On the TV screen, a little boy was inching over to a bathtub that was shrouded with a translucent, white shower curtain. A blurry figure could be seen as a shadow through the shower curtain. The little boy's hand trembled as he slowly let his hand make its way up the side of the white shroud that covered the bathtub.

Sakura let out another scream, her grip on Sasuke's arm tightening.

Sasuke swore that his arm started to go numb. He sighed, prying Sakura's fingers from his arm. Instead of leaving her there on the couch to face the terror alone, the raven-haired man wrapped an arm around her drawing her closer to him. She buried her face into his comforting body, her eyes glued to the television.

"_Don't open that curtain!_" the rosette shrieked. "_Don't open it, Danny!_"

But the little boy in the movie couldn't hear her. With a swift hand, he pulled the curtain open. What was inside the bathtub made Sakura gasp and even made Sasuke jump a little. Inside the tub was a disgusting, shriveled up wretch for a lady. It looked like she had been dead for about fifty years and was left there to rot. Danny's eyes widened as he stared at the grimy-looking body.

The thing's mouth seemed to move, forming the words: "Here a boy, there a boy, everywhere a boy, boy…" It laughed, sending chills down Danny's spine. Slowly, the thing's eyes opened, revealing milky white balls of slime. Cataracts plagued her pupil, but that didn't stop her from sending an evil stare towards the little boy's way. "Hello, Danny. I've been waiting for you."

The rosette screeched, clinging to Sasuke for comfort. Oh, how she hated horror movies. If she only she had known that this was going to happen. There always _had_ to be a bathroom scene! As the movie continued on its little scary path (with the scary lady slowly stepping out of the bathtub and stalking towards Danny while he frantically yanked at the doorknob), Sakura started to close her eyes and bury her face into Sasuke's shirt. "Tell me when it's all over," she said, her voice muffled into his shirt.

Smirk. "Hn." His arm never de-wrapped around her. '_God, Ms. Haruno's a genius…_' Indeed she was.

**-xxx-**

After they finished the movie (well, Sasuke watched all of it) and said their goodbyes to Papa and Mama Haruno, the couple headed back to campus, Sasuke driving Sakura back to the girls' dormitory, giving her a kiss good-bye, and letting her walk up to her dorm on the fourth floor.

What a day, what a day… Sakura felt lightheaded as she stepped into the elevator, thinking about the afternoon fun that she and Sasuke had had. A game of Tangle (**A/N:** Everyone knows that Twister is such a sexual game *wink*), a horror movie that Sasuke held her all through… and he had even survived another meeting with her father.

_Ding_, went the elevator door. Sakura walked out of the elevator and headed over to her room. Just as she was about to insert in the key, the door flew open. '_What the—_'

Sakura's thoughts stopped abruptly as she saw her roommates standing on the other side of the door. Ino and Karin stood there in their PJs. The pinkette's eyebrows raised. '_They didn't leave this room the whole entire time I was gone…_' Before she could question them about what the hell they were doing still here instead of out with their beloveds, Sakura was tugged in by the arm, the door slamming shut behind her.

She rubbed her arm before sending a glare at the blonde and the redhead. "What are you guys _doing_?" she spouted. "Why are you guys still here instead of being out with Suigetsu and Shikamaru?" She took a closer look at her friends. Ino's once clear sapphire eyes were now blurry with unshed tears, making her orbs resemble merely flat pools of water. Her face was abused by previously fallen tears. Sakura turned her gaze to Karin, whose eyes (though framed by her glasses) misted up the lenses. Realization set in. "What happened?" she whispered, walking up to her friends and enveloping both of them into a hug. "Did those boys do something to you?"

Karin pulled away first, feeling awkward with affectionate situations. "Suigetsu and Shika didn't do anything to us. It's just…" Her sentence trailed off. She bit her lip, unsure of what to say. The redhead walked into the kitchen to grab another much-needed cup of coffee. She sat down at the kitchen table, two lone papers by her hand.

"Sakura, we have to show you something." Ino slowly let go of Sakura and gave her a sad smile, something that Sakura hadn't seen in a long time. Which meant that something bad was going on. What the hell was happening? The blonde squeezed her best friend's shoulders as she guided the rosette over to the dining table. Slowly, Sakura sat down, looking up at her best friends in the eyes.

"What's going on?" the rosette asked, hoping for an answer.

Without a word, Karin inched the two papers towards her and motioned for her to read the letters.

Sakura let her eyes trail along the words of the paper. As she read, the emerald orbs on her face widened, millimeter by millimeter. She let out a shaky breath before turning to her friends.

"Guys…" she ripped out of her throat, taking in her friends' tear stained eyes. Her bottom lip trembled.

"I might have to transfer to Tokyo University."

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** DUN DUN DUN! Oh my god! What's going to happen now? Alright. I have to leave this in a cliffy right now. I mean, seriously: the day took up so much space and this is like, 8,000 something words. =_= Don't worry. I'll fill you in with what was on the papers EXACTLY. Word for word. Promise. :)

What's a good crazy scene for today? Oh, alright. So, anyways, remember that little segment with the movie? Where Danny was opening the shower? Well, let's say that the next installment to iSakura is behind those curtains. And I'M Danny. The only way I'm going to show you the other installment is for you to:

_Review, review, review._

It's easy! Just click that button down there and write me a comment. :) Thanks to those who have been faithfully reading and reviewing. And those that aren't reviewing… thanks for reading. ^_^


	11. iHave a Little Accident

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's Note:** Heh-heh. Sorry I put this off a while. ^_^" Haven't been inspired in a while, got distracted by fluffy fanfics, got caught up in Death Note, and I was a little lazy… please forgive me! (bows). Anyways, on with the next installment! :D Oh, and I made up some names for Mr. and Mrs. Haruno. ^_^" Didn't really know their names. So: Mr. Haruno is Tamotsu (meaning "defender" or "protector" because he just wants to protect his daughter like a good daddy) and Mrs. Haruno is "Akane" (meaning "brilliant red" because of her hair XD).

Oh, and a few more things: this chapter might be a little confusing because there are some time things where I go back and forth between Sasuke and Sakura's POV. :D And I introduce Suigetsu! Sorry if he may be a little bit OOC. ^_^"

**Chapter 11**

**iHave a Little Accident**

**-xxx-**

Mail envelopes lay scattered on a kitchen table. A white-haired man sat at the dining table, scratching his chin as he let his green eyes slip to the morning newspaper, sipping his coffee. In the kitchen, a woman with copper-colored hair hummed along with the sound of the sizzling frying pans, teasing the bacon strips with her spatula. As the bacon strips finished with a beautiful smoky brown, the redheaded woman tossed them onto two separate plates with sunny-side-up eggs waiting on the counter for their bacon buddies.

Cheerfully, she chirped, "Finished!" as she slid the plate to her husband and took a seat from across the table and began to eat. Although she looked as if she were fully concentrated on that delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon, the middle-aged beauty's mind was elsewhere, namely on her twenty-four-year-old daughter by no other name than Sakura Haruno. Not only that, but her mind strayed to a freshly opened envelope that lay on the table.

"Still thinking about that letter?" a voice asked, interrupting the copper-haired lady's train of thought. Mrs. Haruno looked up from her eggs to see her husband watching her with concern shining in his emerald orbs. Oh, how they reminded her of her daughter's eyes. It made her worry all the more.

She hadn't realized that she had returned back to spacing out until she felt her husband's hand on hers, comforting her gently. Mrs. Haruno blushed. "I'm sorry, Tamotsu," she murmured, keeping her hand under her husband's touch. Her gaze slowly drifted away from her husband's face. "I'm just so worried about Sakura and what would happen if she had found out." She let her stormy gray eyes take control, letting them meet her husband's own green orbs. "What will happen to her life here in Konoha if she decides to take the chance of going to Tokyo to study?" she asked, letting her husband's hand gently caress her own once more.

"Actually, Akane, I was hoping that she'd jump to the chance," he said too cheerfully. His face turned dark as his eyes took on an evil glint. "That way that _boyfriend_ of hers would be no more."

Akane Haruno gave her husband a playful smack on the cheek with the palm of her hand. "Dear, that's a terrible thing to say! Sasuke is perfect for her." She puffed up her face in childish indignation before letting the child-like look slip away to reveal her motherly face. "Just because he hurt her years ago does not mean that he doesn't deserve to be given a second chance."

Tamotsu Haruno gave a guy-like snort. "Akane, he left Sakura for _four_ years. She was practically crying her ass off every night because of him!" He took his hand away from his wife's and crossed his toned arms. "I'm not going to forgive him for making our daughter suffer twenty-four/seven for four years."

"But—"

"Akane," Tamotsu warned, his tone low as his eyes dark, "need I remind you that Sakura took to physical self-infliction?"

The redheaded woman flinched at the mention of what had happened months after Sasuke had left the village of Konoha. The thought of it made her tense.

_(Flashback)_

_It was a beautiful sunny day in summer, children playing in the parks nearby, giggling and having fun while their mothers supervised. Everything was great._

_ Except for the mood that a certain pink-haired girl was sporting. _

_ Akane brushed her hair back with her fingers, pulling her fiery locks into a messy tail behind her before she took a look at her daughter who was moping under the shade of the umbrella, seemingly overlooking the happy, playing children. But Mama Haruno knew exactly what was going on. Just months ago, the youngest Uchiha had disappeared from the village of Konoha, leaving no letters or reasons why he had left. _

_ Only Sakura knew. And she ain't tellin'. _

_ The poor rosette; Sakura had just started getting ready for a good college, already taking classes at the community college to prepare her for a bigger, better university. Everything she wanted was set out for her, and Sakura was almost about to reach her big goal of going to Tokyo U. to study to become one of the best medics in medical history. It was a good idea actually; the largest hospital in Japan was centered in Tokyo. After Sakura graduated, she could look for a job there where they would certainly need some new help. _

_ Sakura had sent her application papers up to Tokyo a few months before Uchiha had disappeared off the face of the planet; back then, she was all in tip-top shape. Until it all came crashing down with that Uchiha kid. After Sasuke had left her, poor Sakura turned into a heap of unstable emotions, unable to keep up with her college work, leaving her with poor grades and almost no chance of making it to Tokyo University. Days after Sasuke's disappearance, her father bought her an iPod to cope with the pain. Although it eased the loss, that didn't make up for her grades. With months passing by and no reply from Tokyo University, Sakura had applied to Harvard in America as a joke on herself. (__**A/N: **_Remember, Sasuke had always wanted to go to Harvard…_) She had seemed emotionally stable enough, coming home from the community college classes every day, eating and drinking to sustain herself. But there was so much more that was happening to her than met the eye._

_ At first, their daughter's behavior didn't seem as alarming. To Akane and her husband, it seemed simply as their daughter being lovesick and not being able to get over the fact that Sasuke was gone and there were other fish in the sea. _

_ It wasn't until much, much, _much_ later that both Tamotsu and Akane found out that what Sakura felt about Sasuke was serious…._

_ Anyway, returning back to the park scene…_

_ Akane smiled as she watched the children happily dash around the grassy fields, remembering the good ol' days when Sakura was a toddler and would run around just as happy and as youthful. The mother remembered how her daughter's young, bright green eyes shimmered under the afternoon sun as she pranced through the grass, her musical laughter echoing through the air. _

_ With the thought in mind, Akane turned to her daughter in a mood to talk about the old times of the toddler days, a smile plastered on her face… up until she saw that her daughter's long sleeve that she had worn for that hot day slide down crucial inches to reveal the real reason and what she wanted to conceal… _

_(End Flashback)_

Akane shuddered as all of the memories of her daughter hurting came crashing down twice as hard. She remembered everything so clearly: from when she and Tamotsu had found out about Sakura lying about her bleeding forearms to where Sakura admitted to slitting her wrists. That was when Akane and Tamotsu had decided to enroll Sakura at Konoha University where they would keep an eye on her and be there when she needed them.

It made sense: enroll her to a nearby university, visit from time to time, and hope that she's moved on for the best.

Too bad they didn't calculate the chances of Sasuke coming back to Konoha…

The redheaded woman shook her head to clear her mind. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to meet her husband's gaze. "Tamotsu," she stated tenderly, "I love you. And I love our daughter, too." She shifted in her seat. "I want her to be happy like she used to be. Right now, I can see that her happiness lies with this young man."

It was the white-haired man's turn to talk. Tamotsu held his wife's gaze, his green eyes holding fondness for her. "Akane, I understand," he stated truthfully, "but this young man also has the strength to tear her emotionally to pieces."

"Dammit, Tamotsu!" she exclaimed, her voice slightly rising up a notch. "That's how love is, for crying out loud." Akane shook her head, the red locks swishing from either side of her face. "She loves him, Tamotsu. I can see it." Her voice had an edge of desperation. "If you love someone, of course you're giving them the power to tear you apart." She let her hand reach her husband's again before giving Tamotsu a smile. "But you have to trust them not to." Another smile. "Just like I trust you."

The green-eyed man stared at his wife for a while. When had she become so… eloquent? The only time the Akane had spoken to him in length about anything was… well, there were tons of times she had rants about things, but they were all usually on unimportant things like how his brother was a prick. But that wasn't important at the moment… What was important was that his wife was actually talking about something serious. Insert shocked face here from Tamotsu.

"Tamotsu?" Mrs. Haruno said, waving a hand in her husband's face to make sure that he was still functioning correctly.

Mr. Haruno shook his head before jolting up in his seat. "Fine," he grumbled, looking away from his wife with a flushed look adorning his cheeks. He suddenly felt like he was eighteen all over again when he had first met Akane in college.

"Fine what?" questioned his wife still keeping that searching look on her face.

"Fine as in, Sakura has to decide for herself whether she wants to go to Tokyo or not," he clarified. Tamotsu took another bite of a strip of bacon before reaching towards the letters that lay on the table top. With a fatherly sigh, he began to read them again.

**-xxx-**

_ Haruno Sakura,_

_We're proud to accept your admittance to Tokyo University. We know that it has taken some time for us to send back a reply and hope that it has not caused you much trouble. Although you may have already enrolled to another university, there is no trouble to us in transferring from your current board of education to Tokyo U. That choice, however, is strictly yours. You may visit our campus in order to view campus life to consider; however, consider your choice carefully. The deadline for your re-application is in three months. Thank you for your admission to Tokyo University. We hope that you consider us. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ The University of Tokyo_

The sound of rustling papers was heard as the reader shifted, reaching for the next letter. Sliding it out of its envelope, the reader held it gingerly, taking in the words on the paper. The first thing that anyone would notice was the prominent symbol that was prestigiously known due to the university itself. The next thing one would notice was that this letter was almost a carbon copy of the first. Except for one thing…

_Dear Ms. Haruno,_

_Thank you for deciding to enroll in Harvard University. From your information, you seem to be a very passionate and prudent person, a person who would be a valued student at our university. We know that it has been quite a while since we have answered you and hope that it has not caused you much trouble. We have taken into consideration that you may already have enrolled in another university and wanted to inform you that there should be no trouble in transferring from your current board of education to Harvard University. However, that choice is strictly yours. We are also aware that Tokyo University has sent you a letter of recognition also and have contacted them. We have decided that you should first enroll in the University of Tokyo and then, once the time is right, transfer to Harvard in order to earn an even better degree. We do hope that you take into consideration of our proposal and promise a very pleasant learning experience. _

_ Sincerely,_

_ Harvard University_

Slowly, the reader replaced the letters back onto the tabletop and rubbed at her green eyes, freshly opened for the day. Grabbing a scrunchie that lay about an arm's length away, the girl pulled back her long, pink locks and managed to tie it in a messy bun. Rubbing away the signs of sleep deprivation from her eyes, she gave a yawn. "Man, I feel like shit…" She let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair, letting her eyes roam the kitchen before letting her gaze land on the empty dorm room. The two other beds that once held her roommates were now devoid of life.

"It's so empty with them out so early in the morning," she mumbled incoherently. She gathered herself on the dining chair, knees to her chest as she felt loneliness seep into her. Wait, what was she talking about? Sakura got to see the two of them _every day_, for cryin' out loud! Why the hell would she start missing them _now_?

'_Probably because of that talk last night. That definitely got me down…_' Sakura gave a sad smile, remembering the conversation that the three of them had last night.

_ Three girls sat in the kitchen, tightly gripping their coffee mugs. Well, all of them except for one…_

"_What am I going to do…?" the rosette muttered, her eyes still trailing the words on the pages as if searching for a clue. _

_ "Actually, Sakura, I think the first question is why the hell have they sent you these letters in the first place?" wondered Karin, adjusting her black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose before taking a sip of her black coffee. She set her mug down as gently as possible, trying to keep her cool as… well, _cool_ as possible. _

_ Her friends watched their pink-haired friend let out a tired sigh, her green eyes not tearing away from the papers once. "I don't know, you guys. I mean, I _do_ know, it's just—"_

_ "Oh, c'mon, Sakura," Ino sputtered for the first time since Sakura had come back. "There _has_ to be a reason why they've sent you these things, and the only logical thing to assume right now is that you've sent applications to them in the past, asking to have them put you on their student list." Ino fell silent for a moment or two before continuing again. "Considering your reaction to these letters and the fact that you didn't expect them makes me think that you had applied to them before you decided to go to Konoha, probably after Sasuke's leaving when you weren't thinking so rationally."_

_ Bam. Right on the money, honey. Who knew that Blondy had it in her?_

_ Sakura cleared her throat to dissipate the awkward silence. "Well, it was sort of like that…"_

"_**Liar**__," she heard her inner voice say. "__**It was totally like that.**__"_

_Ignoring Inner Sakura, the rosette went on to explain her state in high school, about her wanting to go to Tokyo to become a successful doctor and help out with the large hospital they had there in order to find a stable job and the Harvard application as a joke. _

_ Moments of thick silence followed after. Sakura decided to break the silence once more. Clearing her throat, she re-asked her question: "So, uh… what're we going to do?"_

_ Karin spoke up first. "First things first: Sakura, do you really want to leave Konoha?"_

_ No answer._

_ "Sakura."_

_ "…"_

_ "PINKY! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, YOU—"_

_ "_Yes_, Karin, I'm hearing you loud and clear. Louder than needed, but still," Sakura returned, sticking a finger in her ear to check out the damage Karin left with her vocals. The rosette returned to her daydream-ish state. "I was just thinking, is all…"_

_ The three of them sat in uncomfortable silence, shifting in their seats and slurping at their cups until Ino, eerily quiet since they had begun to talk about the letters, shattered the deafening quiet with a terrifying question of her own, one that had been hanging unspoken in the air:_

"_Sakura, what are you going to do about Sasuke?"_

Sakura sat there at the kitchen table, still running the conversation through her head, from the innocent enough beginning… to the unnerving question in the end that scared the talk out of all of them. The question was still unanswered. I mean, seriously: what _could_ Sakura do about Sasuke? Could she tell him about this? If she did, what would it do to their relationship? She felt her brow furrowing as she let out a frustrated sigh. Surely it wouldn't go very well, especially considering that Sasuke's dream school in the beginning had been Harvard.

Yup, that was definitely the way to go, walk up to the man who had been the love of your life since you were—what, a toddler?—the man who had always wanted to go the university you had coincidentally been accepted in and say, "Hey, babe! Guess what? I just got accepted to Harvard! You know, your dream college that I coincidentally prevented you from getting in because of that one prom incident? Aren't you happy for me?" Oh, she could see it now…

She shuddered at the thought of losing him (or maybe it was the cold?); it was too much already to have had the bad luck of getting accepted (no matter how late) into Sasuke's dream university, but to have to face rejection _twice_? Was this just a mere coincidence that this was happening, or was God trying to send her away because she and Sasuke really didn't belong together? Sakura tried to shake the thought away from her mental stream of thought, drowning out everything with a second cup of coffee. She took a glimpse at the oven's digital clock. _6:35._ The sun just outside the window still wasn't up. But if one looked closely enough, a small glimmer of sun rays seemed to peek over the top of the mountain peaks. Only the clouds were in the way.

Sighing and slowly making her way to stand up, the pink-haired girl stretched, pushing the fatigue out of her body. '_The letters are the least of my problems right now_,_'_ she thought miserably, running a hand in her locks. '_Right now, I have a biochem class to worry about…'_ Pushing herself out of the kitchen chair, Sakura slowly dragged her feet across the floor of the empty dorm room to change for the morning.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke sighed as he melted into the seat in his math class, shaking his leg up and down as he (and the rest of the class) impatiently waited for Kakashi-sensei to get his ass to class. "Stupid Kakashi," he muttered under his breath, "what the hell does he do in the morning that makes him so late to class?"

Although the question was meant for only his ears, the blond next to him replied, "Kakashi-sensei's probably masturbating to his porn or something." Ignoring the disgusted scowl that Sasuke sent his way, the blond man flashed a grin to him. "Hey, speaking of masturbating, how's plan 'Get Sakura to Move in with You,' Sasuke-teme?" Spoken like a true Naruto.

The raven-haired man gave a "Hn" before turning away from his best friend. "None of your business," he muttered bitterly, annoyed at the fact that Naruto decided to bring up _that_ subject again.

"Aw, come on, Sasu-cakes, lighten up. Blondie here just wanted to know," a voice said.

Sasuke barely heard Naruto stifle a laugh. Barely because he _really_ wasn't in the mood to make a scene in math class, and also because there was something familiar in that voice.

The sound of the voice made Sasuke tense. Slowly, he looked up and startled, seeing a familiar young man. Well, not just _any_ young man, anyway. The man had whitish hair with tints of light blue embedded into it, his eyes purple circles on his face. Despite the odd color appearance of the man, he was well-dressed in fitted pants and a sort of dress shirt, a charming smile plastered on his lips. The only thing that took away from his semi-attractive appearance was the sharp teeth that were slightly shown behind that smile of his.

"Suigetsu?" Sasuke monotoned with only a quirk of his eyebrow to show emotion. "Is that you?"

The white-haired man gave a small chuckle before he sat down next to the raven-haired man. He gave Sasuke a pat on the back. "Thought you wouldn't recognize me there, buddy."

Sasuke gave Suigetsu a smirk before running a hand through his spiky locks. "Hn. As if I wouldn't be able to remember _you_, Suigetsu."

Naruto raised his hand as if he were still in elementary school. "Uh, question!" he impulsively blurted out. Not even waiting to be called on—that bastard—Naruto went right on rambling. "Who the HELL is this weird-lookin' guy, teme?" The blond leaned forward a little, his eyes wide as he seemed to analyze the white-haired man.

The raven-haired man nearly groaned. Nearly. Leave it up to Naruto to want to make introductions. Well, not like Sasuke hadn't seen it coming. "He's just someone I met when I went abroad for those four years. Now, dobe, you have to _shut_ _up_. You're getting the attention of the whole fucking class."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, TEME! YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS JUST BECAUSE—"

Suigetsu laughed, cutting off Naruto's upcoming explicative. The blond and raven-haired men exchanged looks.

"Hey, Powder-face, you mind tellin' me what's so funny?" Naruto vehemently fumed, shaking a fist.

The white-haired man's loud guffaws slowly tuned down to a small chuckle. Before he spoke, Suigetsu wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He gave the raven-haired man a toothy smile. "Sasuke, why, I think you've gone soft on me. Usually you wouldn't give this blond the time of day. But now you're actually giving him full-fledged sentences." Another toothy grin crossed his face. "What exactly happened when you moved back to Konoha?"

"…"

"Oh, I get it, you're hiding something from me," Suigetsu answered for his seemingly old time friend. "Lemme try and guess…" Putting a hand to his chin, the white-haired man leaned back in his chair, ignoring the stares of all the students in the room. With a snap of his fingers after a few minutes of thought, Suigetsu leaned forward and stared Sasuke right in the face. Slowly, a smirk crossed his face before he announced:

"You've got yourself a girl."

Seeing Sasuke tense at the five words he declared, Suigetsu confirmed it. Insert toothy grin here. "D'aw, man, you're finally growing up!" he chattered with a cheeky smile as he ruffled Sasuke's hair.

"Why are you here anyway, Suigetsu?" Sasuke muttered, slapping the hand away. He was concentrating on keeping the heat that threatened to spill over his cheeks at bay.

Another grin. "Don't get full of yourself, Sasu-cakes. I'm not here to see you. Actually, I'm here to see a girl of my own." Shooting a look toward the door, Suigetsu gave a knowing smirk that mirrored the Uchiha's. "Speaking of which… there she is now."

"Suigetsu!" A familiar redhead lunged toward the white-haired man, nearly tackling him to the ground. Sasuke looked closer before nearly dropping his jaw. Karin? What. The. _Fuck_? What had this world _come_ to? The redhead took her head off of her boyfriend's shoulder to look at him in the eye. "Why are you here?" she asked, adjusting the black glasses on her nose and giving him a smile.

Sasuke watched as Suigetsu whispered something in her ear that made her face turn the same color as her hair. The white-haired man lead Karin over to where the two other men were sitting, pulling out a chair for her to take a seat. "Hey, Karin, you don't happen to know Sasuke's girlfriend, do you, hon?"

"Sakura? Yeah, course I do!" She gave the three men a smile. A _smile_. Sasuke had _never_ seen her smile a _real_ smile. Just the kinds that were meant to seduce him. "Sakura's my roommate. We're actually really close friends." Another smile.

Suigetsu waggled his eyebrows at the raven-haired man. "So you tryin' to make her move in with you, Sasu-cakes?"

Sasuke's obsidian eyes seem to flare up with annoyance. "I'm not _trying_. I'm going to do it," he stated, determined.

The blond boy, who had sat eerily quiet for a good few moments, finally spoke up again. "Oh, yeah, teme? If you're so 'determined'"—he inserted the air quotes for dramatic effect—"why the hell haven't you asked her yet? I thought you were supposed to ask her on that mushy, gushy third anniversary of yours." Naruto pretended to keel over and barf his guts out. _Very_ mature for a twenty-four-year-old man.

The Uchiha scowled at his blond best friend before averting his gaze. "I just forgot," he muttered almost incoherently. "I was going to…"

The redhead woman gasped. "_Really_? You were going to ask her to move in with you? Why didn't you ask her already?"

Before the raven-haired man could garble out an answer, Suigetsu beat him to it. "It's just because he's a little shy of doing it," he answered for Sasuke, giving his girlfriend a kiss on the forehead. "He just isn't like me, asking you straightforward and all—"

"Suigetsu, if you don't want yourself choking on your tongue, you should shut up right now."

The white-haired man shut up.

Karin gave a girlish giggle before clinging on to Suigetsu's arm. "Well, Sasuke-san, I hope that you'll be able to ask her. And don't worry," she said with a wink, "I won't tell her beforehand. But seriously"—her face turned absolutely serious—"don't chicken out."

"I'm _not_ chickening out," the raven-haired man grumbled again, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, hoping with all of his heart that Kakashi would come walking through the doors _now_.

Naruto snickered. "Hey, speaking of chickens, Chicken Little just called you, teme. He says he wants his ass back!"

The table erupted in laughter, Suigetsu and Naruto being the loudest.

The white-haired man wiped his eyes. "Aw, man, that's rich. Up top, dude," he said as he bumped fists with the blond.

"Hn," Sasuke breathed out. He pushed out his chair and grabbed his books as he headed for the door of the class.

"TEME, JUST WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" Naruto shouted after him.

The raven-haired man looked over his shoulder. "Getting out of here. It looks like Kakashi won't be here for another hour or so, so I'm not going to waste my time here." He turned back around and continued toward the door. "Besides, I need to go pick up some things…"

"Don't you mean someone?" Suigetsu teased.

As the table burst into laughter once more and Sasuke practically dashed for the door, no one noticed a scheming brunette and her platinum blonde friend sitting in a corner of the room, close enough to hear every word that the group was saying.

"So, he's planning to ask her to move in, huh?" the brunette mulled, toying with a piece of paper that sat lifelessly in front of her. Her bright eyes were trained on her object of affection sitting not far off. Slowly, an evil smirk grew on her face.

The platinum blonde looked at her friend carefully before asking, "What exactly are you planning this time, Reina?" she asked quietly, looking over at the happy scene across the room.

Reina almost resembled the Chershire cat. "Oh, just a little something…" She twisted her neck to look over at the platinum blonde. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have anything interesting going on in your biochem class today, would you…?"

**-xxx-**

It was cold, dreary, and bitterly frosty, the grounds covered in powdery snow. And Sakura (that silly pink-haired girl) was walking to her first class of the day. Yeah, she had a car, but she had always had a thing for walking during cold weather. Maybe it was because she loved feeling the crunch of the snow beneath her feet, or perhaps feeling the biting wind nip her cheeks. Whatever it was, one thing was for certain: Sakura _loved_ the snow.

The pinkette gave a sigh, watching as her breath became vapor in the air. Normally, she'd smile ear to ear if she saw this, but today wasn't exactly a day for smiling for her, not with all that she had on her mind. Watching her feet move as she walked towards her class, the rosette looked thoughtfully on as she pondered her current problem.

'_Aw, man, what the hell am I going to _do_?_' she freaked mentally, practically shaking her Inner self by the shoulders in a heap of panic. '_This literally sucks ass!_'

'_**Actually, girl, I think that you have more troubles to think about rather than just Sasuke and those letters. You have something BIG to do in chem. class today, 'member?**_' said her Inner.

'_Actually, Inner, I have something in BIOCHEM.'_

Sakura could almost hear Inner Sakura groan. '_**Same difference!**__'_

'_You know, this is _exactly _the reason why I don't listen to you most of the time_.'

Before her Inner self could reply (no doubt with something insulting and insolent), Sakura managed to shut Inner Sakura out of her subconscious just as she reached her morning class. Just as she slid into her seat near the front and greeted Hinata with a gentle smile, Professor Tsunade breezed through the door. Lucky for Pinky, huh?

"Alright, people," Tsunade spoke briskly as she shrugged off her heavy coat and draped it over her chair, "we're going to be doing some physical chemistry today. You know," she drawled, facing the class with a hand on her hip, "mixing compounds together to see what happens. It's just going to be a little review." And mixing compounds they would. The lab stations were all set up for physical chemistry, flasks and beakers and liquids galore.

One of the people near the back raised his hand as if he were still in middle school. "Wait, Tsunade, how does that make sense? I thought this was a _biochemistry _class not a _physical chemistry _class. We're supposed to be studying living things and stuff, not junk like that."

The professor gave him a dangerous glare. Sakura almost thought that she could hear the young man who had previously spoken gulp.

"Well, young man," Tsunade answered, "just because we're a biochemistry class doesn't mean that we can't do physical chemistry as well." She turned took a few strides toward the board before turning around to face the class. "Anyways, here's what we're going to do today. Be sure to listen carefully because I will _not_ repeat this again." Clearing her throat, the blonde professor began to write a few chemical compounds on the board. "Today we'll be doing acid-base titrations. Surely you are familiar with what they are…"

Shutting the loud drone of the professor's voice out, Sakura studied the chemical compound equation. '_HCl…'_ she thought, raising an eyebrow. '_So we'll be working with hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, huh?'_ Easy enough. She'd done acid-base titrations before in high school and definitely knew her way around a lab. It'd be easy enough. Hopefully there wouldn't be any accidents today. Sakura eyed the safety shower in all of its glory. It wasn't one of those showers with the fancy doors or anything. It was just… a _shower_ that seemed to sprout from the ground. The rosette knew the procedure: if you get something on a large part of your body, you rush to the shower and have someone hold the fire blanket up to cover you, preferably someone you're comfortable with. Then, you strip off the contaminated clothes once you're covered and rinse while everyone leaves the room. After that, you'd be escorted to the nurse.

Of course, this had never really happened at all to her or anyone else she knew of.

Tsunade clapped her hands together. "Alright then, people. You got the idea. Get to your stations and make it quick! First group to finish gets an '_A_' for the grading period." The whole class gawked at her. "I'm not kidding," she drawled. "I seriously _hate_ laggards." Another clap of her hands. "Now get moving! Go, go, _go!_"

At those words, people scrambled to their lab stations, grouping up with their friends or the smart people in order to work as quickly as possible. Just goes to show you how grade-crazy people were these days. Briskly walking to her lab station where Hinata waited for her, Sakura eased next to her friend, giving a goofy grin as she looked at the contents in the flasks. Carefully as she had since high school, the rosette set up the titration station, clamping in that long titration tube whose name she could never remember. "There," she muttered, satisfied. "Now if I can just—"

She didn't finish her sentence. A sickening splash echoed throughout the room, turning people's heads in the direction of the sound.

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!_" The scream ripped out of the rosette's throat, as she clawed at her back in pain. The threads of her shirt were slowly being eaten away by the liquid that coated it. Hydrochloric acid.

"Everyone, _get out of the room_!" ordered the professor as she rushed toward Sakura and got her to the safety shower. The students rushed out of the room, muttering about who the genius was that spilled the acid. Tsunade hurried, her face pale. "Sakura, I need you to—"

"I got it, I got it," Sakura managed to croak out through the intense pain emanating from her back. With the help from the professor, she managed to get the shirt off her back.

The professor, to the rosette's intense surprise, hesitated for the first time. "Sakura, I know this may seem a little awkward, but you have to take off your undergarment, too," Tsunade stated firmly, pointing to the rosette's bra. Sakura turned a little red with embarrassment, but didn't question her professor's judgment, knowing that this was all part of the procedure.

"_Fuck!_" she cursed, the mere feeling of her bra brushing against her back giving her the worst pain of her life. Without another word, the professor pulled the shower. As the shower ran, the cold water pulsed onto the pinkette's back. Sakura held back another scream that threatened to rip out of her throat. God, why did acid have to _burn_? Why couldn't it tickle you or something?

Her professor's cursing made her snap back into reality. Unable to form a correct sentence, Sakura gave a questioning whimper, watching as her teacher rushed toward her with the now unfolded fire blanket.

"I'm so sorry, Sakura," her professor spoke, her hazel eyes burning with frustration as she held the fire blanket up to cover Sakura's half-naked body. "I forgot to call one of the girls to stay back with you so that I could go get the nurse…" Her eyes trailed to the water that was gradually flowing out of the room. Tsunade cursed again. "This was _definitely _not an accident," she muttered, averting her gaze from Sakura. "Whoever did this is going to be _very_ sorry."

"Sakura?"

Said girl froze under the shower, almost forgetting the immense pain that her back was subjected to. Instead, her entire focus was devoted to the oh-so-familiar voice that came from the door on her right.

"Sasuke-kun," she managed to croak out, seeing his form materialize in the doorway.

The raven-haired man rushed in. "What happened to her, Tsunade?" he asked. His eyes darted from Sakura's small, half-naked form to the professor.

The professor gave no answers. Instead, she replied, "Sasuke, right? Can you hold this fire blanket in front of Sakura while I get the nurse?" Not waiting for an answer, the professor ran out after handing Sasuke the fire blanket.

With the professor gone, only Sasuke and Sakura remained.

Sasuke quickly adjusted the fire blanket and to have it held perfectly in front of Sakura to shield her naked body from the door. After a few moments of awkward silence, the raven-haired man spoke. "Sakura," he began, "why are you half-naked in biochem class?"

Even with the hurt on her back and the cold water beating down her naked upper body, that didn't stop Sakura from bursting bright red. She quickly crossed her arms across her naked chest in self-consciousness. "Someone spilled acid down my back," she murmured almost inaudibly.

At those words, he stifled the urge to break a wall against his fist, his eyes widening a fraction. '_Spilling acid? How often does that happen?_' Not very often, he was certain. Because this happened rarely, the raven-haired man suspected that this was no freak accident. Then, that was when something hit him, something totally out of the air and non-related whatsoever: Sakura was _naked_. Well, half-naked technically, but that was beside the point. The point was that she had more than a little skin showing, a fact that made something stir inside him. '_Fuck,'_ he mentally cursed, '_why the hell am I thinking about that at a time like _this_?_' Stupid hormones, stupid dirty mind, stupid… stupid naked Sakura.

'_Sakura. Naked…'_ Being a young man, Sasuke had always thought of things like this. Now he wished he _didn't_. Too late now. He let his eyes roam the pale curves of her upper body, following the inward curve of her waist to the flare of her jean-covered hips. Her arms were crossed across her chest, hiding her breasts from his view. Well, the most part of it anyway. His mind started to fill with dirty images. He could almost hear her moaning his name… _Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun…_

"Sasuke-kun?"

Her voice instantly shattered his thoughts, bringing him back into the present and back into reality. Right. Reality: Sakura was injured because of acid spilling down her back, and now Sasuke was holding a blanket up to cover the view of her body. Well, at least that was what he thought. In actuality, Sasuke realized that he had gotten closer to her, standing under the shower with her, his clothes saturated. Sakura's eyes were wide and doe-like, shining green as they stared back into his own obsidian eyes. The only thing separating their bodies was the now drenched fire blanket.

"S-Sasuke-kun," Sakura began, feeling her face heat up as she realized how close he was to her. Under different circumstances, it wouldn't have made her so self-conscious about herself. But, seeing how she was currently shirtless and drenched and most likely acid-burned at her back, this _definitely_ made her self-conscious. The on-coming words that meant to escape her throat hitched when Sasuke's lips found her neck and jaw. His lips, dragging around painfully slow, were everywhere, her forehead, her cheeks, even her eyelids. But never her own lips. And this frustrated her. The rosette gently tangled her hands in his drenched midnight locks, pulling his head back so that his lips were positioned right over her own. Slowly, she inched toward him, ignoring the pulsing pain in her back and the fact that she was currently shirtless. All she wanted was to feel his lips against her at the moment. She stood on her tip-toes to claim his lips, inching in. Closer, closer…

"Sakura? Sakura! Are you alright so far?" came a voice from the hallway outside. The couple broke apart immediately, Sasuke resuming his position, holding the dripping fire blanket in front of Sakura as the blonde professor briskly walked through the door.

Giving Sasuke a raised eyebrow before turning her full attention to her student, Tsunade turned off the safety shower and handed Sakura a large towel. "You're going to have you cover yourself with it," the blonde professor ordered, wiping the sweat off of her head with the back of her hand. "The nurse is going to treat you right next door where there aren't any chemicals or obstacles that could potentially hurt you."

With Sasuke at her right and Tsunade at her left guiding her to the door, Sakura hurriedly walked towards the door, the large towel wrapped around her torso. She gave a groan as the soft fabric irritated her back while she walked to the next room.

"Just hold on a little more, Sakura," Sasuke murmured, so quietly that Sakura almost hadn't heard. Right next door, the nurse stood in the doorway, holding it open for his pink-haired patient to step inside. A first aid kit and a few other things stood on a nearby table.

The nurse, a middle-aged man with long spiky white hair that was sharply tied up, sped over to where Sakura sat. Despite the gravity of the situation, he still seemed friendly and carefree. Maybe a little _too_ carefree, judging by the gigantic smile on his face. "Hello, there!" he chirped, "I'm your nurse, Jiraiya! Don't worry, though, dear, I'll be very gentle with you, m'kay?"

'_Gentle?_' Sasuke thought. He could almost feel his eye beginning to twitch. Why did this guy seem so… _pervy_ to him?

'_**Maybe it's because of the fact that he's going to be touching your girlfriend while **_**you**_** can't**_,' mocked a voice inside his head.

What a statement. That almost set the raven-haired man's blood on _fire_; if not almost send him on rage mode. Who the hell did this guy think he was? And don't you _dare_ answer "the nurse," because Sasuke was sure as hell this guy wasn't a nurse. In fact, the dude's name seemed pretty familiar. _Jiraiya_, he had said? Sasuke thought a while before his brain smacked him with the answer. '_That's the name of the author who writes the porn Kakashi reads_,' he mentally growled. And this porn writer was going to touch his girlfriend.

A moan broke him from his thoughts. '_What the…?_'

His eyes shifted to the pink-haired girl who was lying face down on a table, the towel draped against the edges. Her hands clamped on the edges of the table as Jiraiya applied some kind of… whatever he was applying to her back. Sasuke's blood simmered. Great; not _only_ does this fake of a nurse get to touch his girlfriend when he can't, but the porn writer has to shove it in his face by making his girlfriend—yes, _the_ Uchiha Sasuke's girlfriend—_moan_ when he was still struggling to keep his hormones on check. What a way to shove it in his face, ne? Re-focusing his attention on the pinkette and the white-haired man, Sasuke was just above to knock the so-called nurse's brains out…

Until he saw what was on Sakura's back.

Gnarled, pink flesh was centered in the middle of the rosette's back, ugly and burning with pain. Having the shape of a flame, the burn was tapered around the edges, looking like it could peel right off if anyone tried to do so; but in Sasuke's heart, he knew that the burn wound would never peel off. It was something that would stay there for a long, _long_ time.

"She got burned really bad," the white-haired man-nurse muttered as he poured a little more of what Sasuke thought was antiseptic onto Sakura's scarred back. "This is one of the worst chemical burns I've ever seen…"

Before he could stop himself, Sasuke managed to say, "Is it ever going to go away?" He already knew the answer, but he still felt like he needed something, felt like he needed another person to confirm it for him so that he could believe it.

Jiraiya looked at the raven-haired man, his eyes tired and weary, making him seem more like a nurse than a porn writer. Giving a blatant sigh, he turned to the professor. "Tsunade, can you tell me the molarity of the acid?"

Tsunade stayed quiet for a while before she answered, "10 M."

10 M. _10 M_. That was some pretty strong acid. Not only was the acid not diluted, but it was at its strong point. Considering the large burn mark on Sakura's back, the container that held the acid must have been pretty big—about a liter or so. That was the only possible thing Sasuke could say about it: the acid wasn't diluted and burned through her shirt in a matter of minutes. _Definitely_ not an accident.

Jiraiya stared at the pink flesh on the girl's back before returning his supplies back in his box. When the rosette struggled to sit up on the table, the towel still barely hanging around her front torso, the white-haired man stopped her, telling her, "Sakura, you can just rest on the table. It's big enough, and I need to talk to your professor and this young man here." After the pink-haired girl replied, Jiraiya lead the two of them over to a small part of the room away from Sakura's table. Confirming from the distance that Sakura was still well, the white-haired man cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the two others.

"Sakura's had a pretty bad acid burn. In an answer to your question, Sasuke, that burn will probably leave a terrible scar." He watched Sasuke flinch before continuing. "In her state, she won't be able to attend classes for a while. She needs to be on painkillers for the time being. The burn will get better, as long as she has someone taking care of her." He eyed Tsunade and Sasuke for a few moments before continuing. "Do either of you two know who she's currently living with? If she's in a dorm or—"

"She lives with me as of now," Sasuke calmly stated. He didn't know what was going on through his head, but all Sasuke knew was that she needed to be close by him. It was only a hunch still, but he had a feeling that this was probably caused by one of his fangirls. Had they _still_ not given up on him? Well, one's thing for certain: there was more than a slim chance that this was his fanclub's doing. Which meant that Sasuke had to keep a sharper eye on Sakura else worse comes to worse.

Tsunade eyed him suspiciously; she didn't say anything, but her face said it all: '_What in hell do you think you're doing?_'

Jiraiya didn't seem to notice the venom in Tsunade's glare. "Alright, then! That's fine then. I'll just have you sign a few papers over here. You'll have to go get some prescribed painkillers for her at the pharmacy after today. I've already written out the prescription, so you won't have to do much work."

As the white-haired man lead Sasuke away from the two other females, Tsunade shook her head and turned to look at the resting pinkette. Her eyes softened as she took in the acid burn that was etched into her back. Tsunade wasn't stupid. She knew _exactly_ who was behind this, even though she acted as if she didn't know. It was always the fault of that stupid, egotistical black-haired model-y guy who thought he controlled all women's hearts; that _dude_ had some crazy fangirls that always seemed…oh, jeez, what was the word… _homicidal_. And that girl with her crazy platinum blonde hair…

Tsunade shook her head again and let out a jaded sigh. Maybe what Sasuke was doing was the right thing; getting Sakura to move out of the dorms where it was practically infested with his fangirls and into his home was the safest thing for the pinkette at the moment. The blonde professor took another look at the pink-haired girl. Hopefully it was the right thing to do.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** GAH! Omigod, you guys, sorry if I haven't been updating in a while. I'm serious about writing all of this over the summer. It just took me a long while to… fix up the ending? XD I was still thinking about how to end it, so that's why it took me a long time. (pained laugh)

Anyway, more excuses! I had to take the SAT's this weekend, and I'm deathly tired. Trying desperately to raise my grade in PreCal right now, so don't expect another chappy too quickly, okay? Thank you one and all reviewers! I'm too tired to put up a crazy reviewing story so please: do the jaded girl a favor and click the button down there and write me a review so I won't die from depression and exhaustion. Okay? Love you guys to death! :D


	12. iMove In

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**iMove In**

**Author's note:** Thank you all reviewers! ^_^ Old and new. I've enjoyed reading your comments, and I must say: I ADORE YOU ALL! (ahems) Well. About this particular chapter now… I decided to let you take a little glimpse into Sasuke's life since I've done it mostly about Sakura. Now you get a background check on Sasuke. ;) _Italics_ are Sasuke's memories.

**-xxx-**

Sakura awoke to a dulled pain on her back that immediately put her on edge. It wasn't extremely intense, but it was still enough to irritate her. '_What…what happened?_' the rosette thought as she lay there. Struggling to sit up, she arched her back… and instantly felt a throbbing, burning sensation run through the center of her back. The pink-haired girl hissed before she slowly lowered herself back down. "What the hell happened…?" she murmured to herself.

She tried to recount yesterday's happening… and with the brokenness of an old VCR tape, she remembered. The cold, the class… the _acid burn_. She shuddered when she remembered the sick way the acid ate away at her skin, clutching the sheets tighter. But that was when she remembered a major detail: '_If I fainted in the classroom, what the hell am I doing _here_?_'

Sakura let her senses overtake her, letting the surroundings soak in. She was in a bed, a translucent white canopy draped over oak shielding her from the outside. Her hands ran across the bedding. Nice, silky dark blue sheets.

She felt panic slowly rising in her. '_Deep breaths, Sakura, deep breaths_,' she told herself. Yeah. Like _those_ help. Knowing that she was unable to get out of bed without falling flat on her face, the rosette knew there was only one option left for her. Taking in a deep breath of air, Sakura let out an ear-piercing shriek.

**-xxx-**

There were only three words that described Sasuke that morning: fucking dead tired. It practically took the entire night to pack up Sakura's things and shift them over to his gigantic mansion. Even after he was done, he had to wait in the hospital so that he could get directions from the doctors about what to do and what kinds of medicine he was to expect. Right, right: why doesn't he just go to a _regular_ doctor for pain meds and go to a _regular_ pharmacy to pick them up and let the _regular_ campus nurse take care of Sakura? Psh! Please—Uchiha Sasuke was _anything_ but regular. Say that he was regular to his face and I'm sure you'd expect a bloody nose the next millisecond. Besides, no one can trust the campus nurse with those homicidal fangirls roaming around. Who knows what would happen _next_? (i.e. "accidental" tossing of syringes, overdose on pain meds, wrong fluid infusion, etc.)

So yeah. Sasuke was officially _dead_. Up until he heard the most frightening noise of his life. Something that oddly sounded a lot like Sakura's screaming. Jolting out of bed, he dashed down the hall to the guest room he had put her in and yanked open the door. "Sakura?" he called as he rushed towards the bed. Jeez, even when he's worried he's monotonous.

The raven-haired man pulled open the canopy. Sakura lay in the middle of the bed, her pink hair fanned out across her cyan pillow and matching sheets, green eyes wide open. She jerked her head in his direction and, as if she was injected with a depressive, visibly relaxed.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun," she breathed, "it's you."

Sasuke ignored her hello and moved closer towards her shaking body. "What's wrong? Why'd you scream?" he asked bluntly. He gave her a cursory look to see if her conditioned had gotten any better. From the looks of things, the scar hadn't gotten any better (judging by the look on her face), but it seemed like she was managing about it. Her face looked flushed and warm, her cheeks rosy pink from (possibly) the fright she had gotten when she woke up in a different surrounding.

He watched as the rosette took a deep breath, admiring the way the silk of her nightgown moved with her chest.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun," she murmured, pulling the dark blue sheets toward her. "I didn't know I was in your house." She gave him a small, sheepish smile. "I've never actually seen your rooms, so…"

Sasuke sat himself down beside her on the bed and scowled. "Hn," he breathed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "You should be sorry, little girl." Another scowl. "Waking me up is a crime."

Sakura let a smirk of her own play on her lips. "Oh really?" she pursued playfully. "And how do you expect me to pay it off, _Uchiha-sama_?"

"Hn. That's _Sasuke-kun_ to you," said the raven-haired man as he leaned in closer toward her, placing his lips right next to the girl's ear. "And I'm going to _show_ you how you'll pay for your crime, _Sa-ku-ra_."

He felt her shudder and gave a smirk, pulling himself away from her ear and roughly planting a kiss on the girl's rosy lips. With her permission, Sasuke slipped his tongue into her mouth, exploring every crevice. They did so hungrily, passionately as if nothing else in the world mattered but each other. It wasn't until Sakura pulled her head away that they realized they were having trouble breathing. With the feel of Sakura's lips away from his own, Sasuke decided to explore the rest of her, breathing in her scent and marking the skin on her neck with love bites. He chuckled when he heard the way her breath hitched when his lips made their way to a sensitive spot on her neck. Testing the waters, the raven-haired man clamped his lips down on it. She moaned, the sound resonating in his ears. Sasuke clenched his jaw when he felt his pants grow tighter. God, the things she did to him. And she didn't even have a clue. He made his way down to the valley of her chest, smirking when he felt her shudder and grip his hair in anticipation.

But then she realized something, bringing back the talk she had with Karin and Ino just a day or two ago. She could almost hear the conversation again:

"_Have you and Sasuke done it yet?"_

"_Hey! Isn't that a little personal? And besides… what if I'm not, you know… _ready_ yet?"_

And that was just it: she wasn't _ready_. She couldn't do this yet. Not yet.

As gently as she could, Sakura placed two hands at his chest and pushed him away, giving him a small smile when she saw his confused face. "Um, Sasuke-kun, can we go downstairs and have a bite to eat or something? I'm kind of hungry."

With a nod (even though he seemed kind of annoyed), the raven-haired man pushed himself off the bed, pulled away the canopy, and walked over to the closet where he had put all of her clothes in last night.

Sakura sighed before she dragged herself out of bed, feeling that uncomfortable twinge in her back. She glanced over to where Sasuke stood, over at the closet picking out some clothes that looked strangely a lot like hers.

"Uh, Sasuke?"

The raven-haired man, not bothering to look up, gave a grunt.

Sakura stared at the purple shirt that Sasuke held in his hand. It was a blouse with shoulders that poofed out a little and little fluffs of fabric that decorated the chest. Definitely _not_ one of Sasuke's shirts. Actually, it looked a lot like one of Sakura's own purple shirts. The rosette pointed a finger at the shirt, hoping _very much_ that the shirt was not Sasuke's. "Is that your shirt?"

_Please, please, please, _please_ don't say 'yes'_!

Sakura watched as her boyfriend shifted his eyes towards the purple shirt. "It's _your_ shirt." He eyed the pink-haired girl. "Why?"

Realizing her mistake, Sakura stood there in the uncomfortable silence and shifted her weight onto one leg before replying, "I… thought it was your shirt."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. _Very_ slightly. He pressed his lips together. This was the first time in a long time that he wanted to laugh. "You thought it was… my shirt," he repeated slowly, trying to make sense of what the hell went on in the girl's brain.

"Wait a sec, what's _my_ shirt doing in _your_ closet?" Sakura asked, advancing toward the closet. She yanked the doors open. All of her clothes from the dorm were neatly hung up, wrinkle-free. At a loss for words, Sakura looked to her boyfriend for an explanation, eyes wide in disbelief.

Sasuke gazed back at her with the same intensity before he shrugged and handed her the purple shirt and a pair of jeans. "You're living with me now. I moved all of your stuff in last night when after you took your pain meds at the hospital." He pointed to a nearby bedside drawer. "And if you're wondering, your iPod's on that nightstand." He walked over to the door. Before he was about to walk out of the room, Sakura stopped him with a "Wait!"

The rosette looked toward his figure. "Why'd you just move me in? I mean, isn't this a little too soon?"

For a moment, he didn't move. Then, he turned to look over his shoulder. Only pure seriousness painted his face. "Actually"—his eyes seem to take on a new gleam—"I think it was _too late_." He turned away. "Seeing you with that scar on your back"—he paused, thinking of ways to not sound like he cared, like he was _weak_—"it's made me think that I haven't been keeping my eye on you enough. They hurt you." The next words nearly made Sakura's heart stop. "And I don't want to see you like that again."

With a mumble of "I'm going to get changed," the raven-haired man departed, leaving the rosette all alone.

Sakura listened to his footfalls while she soaked in the new information. "He moved me in…" she whispered, walking over the nightstand and picking up her iPod. "He moved me in…all in one night." She held the iPod to her chest, squeezing it with both her hands. Oh, God… it must have been that bad. I mean, she was just _joking_ at first about homicidal fangirls, but… just seeing and _feeling_ the maliciousness was enough to make her freak. "She meant to kill me…" she whispered. "She wanted to kill me." She squeezed her iPod tighter. And Sasuke… the notorious Uchiha who was infamously known to never have cared for anyone or shown any sort of emotion…

He had done this all for her. "Sasuke-kun," she murmured, "do you love me?"

Psh. Girl, why don't you ask him yourself?

_**'Wait a sec, girl,'**_ Inner Sakura spoke up, _**'Sasuke-kun's never said he loved you! So why the hell would he start now, ne?'**_

Way to ruin it, Inner.

Outer Sakura frowned. '_But he's played songs for me that practically _tell_ me he loves me…_'

She swore she heard her inner self scoff. _**'Yeah, but he actually has to **_**say**_** those three words, moron.'**_

_Touché._

"Aw, shut up, me," she told her Inner as she walked to her bathroom. After a run through of her daily routine and a nice change of clothes, Sakura slipped on a jacket and carefully walked toward the stairs. If she sped-walked or ran, her acid-burned back tissue would stretch. And hurt. Sakura grabbed her pink earphones and slipped them in her ears, thumbing through the list of songs before one caught her eye.

**Existentialism on Prom Night**

**By Starlight Run**

Huh. She remembered this song so well. In fact, she probably still knew the lyrics. A small smile crossed her face. She pressed the center button, tucked the iPod away, and listened as sad piano music filled her head and soul.

_**When the sun came up, we were sleeping in**_

_**Sunk inside our blankets, sprawled across the bed**_

_**And we were dreaming…**_

When Sakura got to the kitchen, she looked around. Huh. No Sasuke, here. He was probably still upstairs getting ready. '_Well, might as get familiar with the kitchen_.' The rosette raided the fridge and found some eggs and bacon. Guess the boy doesn't just eat tomatoes, ne? She got out some pans and started the stove fire, already cooking the breakfast. She listened to the song as she cooked, humming along to the tune she knew so well before she just decided to burst out singing.

And so she did.

_**Sing like you think no one's listening**_

_**You would kill for this, just a little bit**_

_**Just a little bit, you would, you would**_

Piano music invaded once more after the last two words, drumming up emotion. Sakura danced gracefully across the kitchen, butter in hand. Lighting up the fire on the stove, the rosette picked up where she had left up on her sing-along.

_**Sing me something soft, sad and delicate,**_

_**Or loud and out of key, sing me anything!**_

She sang, sang like the song told her to while she flipped the bacon, like she thought that not a single person was listening. Well, or so she thought.

"Having fun?"

Startled, the rosette turned toward the kitchen door. Leaned up against the frame of the door, Sasuke stood with a small smirk on his lips. He looked… nice in the morning. His hair looked fresh from the morning shower—curious though how it always seemed to defy gravity—and his face brighter than usual. His usual clothing wasn't that unusual, consisting just of a simple black polo that had his family's fan displayed proudly on his back and a nice pair of faded jeans.

Sakura watched as he pushed himself off the door frame and approached her before she gave a sigh. "So much for singing like no one's listening…"

Smirk. "You should do it _when_ no one's listening."

The pink-haired girl gave an angry _hrumph!_ "Asshole," Sakura mumbled, scooping out the eggs out on to some nearby plates. She let the bacon to fry a little more, teasing it the same way her mother had taught her.

He watched her as she pouted, his eyes practically gleaming in amusement as he admired the way her face was adorned with faint tints of pink when she was embarrassed or angry. '_Hn,'_ he thought as he leaned against the door frame, '_when did she get so… _sexy_ when she's frustrated at me?_'

Pushing himself off of the door frame, Sasuke sauntered over to his pink-haired girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the neck. "Hn. Of course I'm _your_ asshole." When he saw the color on Sakura's face flare, he smirked, knowing he had done his job right, and went to set up the table.

Sakura tried to shake off the feeling she got with Sasuke's advances. "It's nothing," she muttered to herself, now ignoring the song on her iPod. "It's nothing…" She brought the plates to the table and sat, lost in her thoughts as she ate.

Semi-lost in thoughts, that was. If only the pain in her back would just go to hell…

They ate wordlessly, only giving each other the occasional fleeting gaze. It was all silence until Sasuke said, "Is the burn bothering you?"

Sakura swallowed her bacon. "Not really. Only if I stretch the scar tissue. If I keep taking the pain meds and not bother it, I'll be fine." She grinned.

He nodded. "Good. Don't do anything that'll irritate it further." Stuffing the last pieces of bacon down his throat, he got up, went down the hall, and grabbed an elegant-looking overcoat that seemed to say _You will respect my authoritah!. _Or something like that.

Sakura looked up from her breakfast, her eyes following the young man. "Sasuke-kun, where are you going?"

"Getting ready to go to work," he answered back from the halls, his toneless voice echoing off the walls.

Abandoning her breakfast, she followed him in to the halls. "Work?" she repeated. "I didn't know that you actually held down a job."

"Hn," Sasuke snorted as he came out of the halls with a shiny black suitcase. "How do you think I manage to support this estate of mine?"

_Touché_.

"But wait, Sasuke-kun," Sakura continued despite his biting remark, "if you have a job already, why do you keep going to college?"

Sasuke shrugged. "My uncle employs me."

"Eh?"

He sighed. This might take a while to explain to her. Taking a glance at the clock and seeing that it read a good forty-five minutes before he actually needed to head off to work. Sasuke took Sakura by the arm, led her into the kitchen and seated her down. "Sakura, do you remember anyone from my family?"

Cocking her head to one side, she thought a moment and nodded. "Yeah… there was your older brother. And your mom and dad." Then she frowned. "But I've never known that you've had an uncle."

That was right—Sakura never knew that he'd ever had an uncle. In every single aspect of their childhood together, Sakura remembered seeing Sasuke's family a few times. She remembered Sasuke's family being head of a company. Because of it, the Uchihas never really had time to socialize, but when they did, they were normally over at her house due to parties her parents always seemed to throw, and because of those parties, she met the Uchiha family: Fugaku, the father of the household; Mikoto, the kind, caring mother who Sasuke seemed more attached with when they were little (she could still remember); and Sasuke's older brother Itachi, mysterious, aloof, but always loving of his younger brother. Those were the only family members of the Uchiha family that Sakura knew _existed_. But hey: who could blame her? Usually Sasuke was at her house. It was never the other way around.

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah. Itachi and my mother and father. You remember what my father was?"

"Uh-huh. Head of a really huge business," Sakura responded, the memories as crystal clear as day. She watched as Sasuke's eyes went glassy. It almost seemed as if he were looking at something far away and out of his reach.

"Aa. Father was the head of the business industry. He was a brilliant business man. Did everything. Everything in our lives was perfect: our house"—he gestured towards the ceiling—"our jobs, our clothes—everything. And then…" He remembered. Oh, God, he could remember the fear, the loneliness, the _denial_ he felt…

_"I-It's okay, Mom, it's okay—I know you're just sleeping. You're just sleeping. Please stop scaring me."_

Sakura saw the look on his face, the look that a child would make if he was lost and alone. She spoke her next words carefully. "And then what happened, Sasuke-kun?" she asked quietly.

His mouth felt dry, his next words came out almost as a whisper. "They died."

_The people from the morgue watched as the raven-haired boy tried to bring back the bloody bodies to life. "C'mon," said the fourteen-year-old as he frantically shook his mother's body, "C'mon, Mom, this isn't funny—I-I know you're just sleeping. A minute after you'll wake up a-and the joke'll be on me, right, Mom?" His eyes, wide and naïve, searched for any signs of life._

_His mother didn't reply. She was quiet, looking like she was almost smiling as if she had died a peaceful death. Tears streamed down the sides of Sasuke's face, blurring his vision and his sense of reality. Seeing how his mother didn't reply, he gently let his mother down and, trembling, turned to his father. _

_Despite his tears, he cracked a smile and tried to laugh. "Dad," as he shook his father's shoulders, "Dad, don't play along with her." His voice faltered and broke. "Please, this isn't funny." Sasuke shook his shoulders. "C-C'mon, Dad!"_

_Shook them again a little harder. "Dad, this isn't funny!" _

_No. No. He wouldn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. This was all a dream, a dream… he'd wake up soon and his parents would be there, happy and alive like they were hours ago. But… it all seemed so _real_. _

_By now, Sasuke was basically thrashing his father about; the sobs were wracking his throat to pieces. "Goddammit, Dad, don't fuck with me!"_

_Sasuke raised a hand to smack his father's blood-deprived cheek—and was stopped by a smack to his own. The raven-haired boy dropped to his knees and held his cheek, trembling with shock by the fact that he'd been stricken. "Get up. You're acting weak," said a voice next to him. "They're dead, Sasuke." The fourteen-year-old looked up and saw his brother, almost a mirror image of himself except for the clear five year difference, standing beside him, tall and emotionless: Uchiha Itachi._

"…What?" The word was said softly in disbelief.

Sakura's voice drew him back to reality. Sasuke gazed at her, still able to hear the remnants of the past playing over and over in his head. He mentally scolded himself for losing himself like that.

"They died," he repeated, this time a little more grounded to reality. "A car accident. Died on impact." He swallowed to wet his parched throat. "They never wrote a will, so my uncle Madara took over the company for us because Itachi was still a college student without a major and I was just starting high school."

Her eyes softened. "Fourteen-years-old…" That was around the time that the Trio (you know, including Naruto in their little coupliness makes three) were just in high school. She lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry. I never knew."

Sasuke smiled bitterly. "There were a lot of things you never knew about me."

At those words, Sakura felt a twinge, and not one that she would get from the acid burn on her back. She pressed her lips together, trying to make it so that the words she so wanted to say wouldn't come out. Of course she wouldn't know; Sasuke would never tell her things like that. He wouldn't trust her to become a part of his life. "I'm sorry," she whispered once more.

"Hn. You don't have to be," the young man replied before shifting his gaze elsewhere. "A few years later after the accident, Itachi—he'd gone out this one day—never came back. It was just me"—his hands visibly clenched on his overcoat—"and Madara-oji-san. I don't live with my uncle, so he employs me so we can still keep in touch."

Sakura kept her eyes on her boyfriend, thinking of ways she could try and break into his thoughts. "What happened to Itachi-nii-san?"

No answer at first. But after a drawling sigh from Sasuke, he answered, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair. "I don't know exactly."

Sakura stared at him, watching in astonishment as Sasuke's face took a questioning turn: he was in _doubt_. His face, usually totally devoid of emotion, looked now as if he had reverted twenty years back into the past when he was merely four and had lost his way home. His eyes, usually obsidian-black and soulless, were shining with uncertainty. It was a total transformation. And Sakura was _scared_. "Sasuke-kun?"

In that moment that she spoke his name, all of that disappeared: his frightful face, his shining eyes both returned to normal. "Hn…" he said, knowing that he had shed more than an iota of emotion.

"What exactly happened?" she asked again quietly, her green eyes shining.

Sasuke looked into them, those green, gorgeous orbs, and found himself thinking about the last time he saw his brother. Tearing his gaze from her face, he looked out of the nearby window. He didn't know… was he really ready to open up to someone else about his family life…? Family had always been a touchy subject with him…

_(Flashback)_

_A raven-haired young man sat at a desk in a semi-lighted room, studying for an exam. He ran a hand through his rebelliously spiked hair. His face seemed to say that he was a few years younger than he really was—perhaps about sixteen. He stared at the blank sheet in front of him and sighed, pushing away the paper of logarithms and exponential functions and scratching his head. _

_ "Dammit," he muttered, looking over the paper once more before he erased his work. Turning around in his swivel chair, he called out to the halls, "Itachi-nii-san!" _

_ The older Uchiha came in from the halls, a towel draped over his long black hair that he normally kept tied back in a loose ponytail. Apparently he was in the middle of changing when Sasuke had called for him; only a pair of fitting jeans was on him. His chest, firm and slightly muscular, gleamed with droplets of water. "Nani, Sasuke?" he asked from the door as he wiped his forehead with the towel. _

_ "Itachi-nii, can you help me with my math homework?" Sasuke asked shamelessly. Normally, an Uchiha would bite themselves before they asked for another's help, but he had asked so many times for his brother's help (Itachi _was_ a genius, after all), he didn't even have to suck up his pride every time anymore. _

_ Of course, even though Sasuke asked every time, that didn't mean that Itachi would always help him._

_ From the doorway, the older Uchiha sibling gave a sad smile before walking over towards his little brother. "Sorry, Sasuke," he said, poking his brother in the forehead with his index finger like he usually did. "I have a big test tomorrow that I have to get ready for. Maybe next time."_

_ As Itachi walked back towards the hallway, his back facing Sasuke, Sasuke glared at his back. Then, his eyes softened and he turned back to his desk, fists clenching. "It's always 'next time.'" His voice sounded broken, too weary for a sixteen-year-old. "Why do you always do that and walk away?" _

_ For a prolonged moment of time, Itachi stared at him with his tired black eyes. He pivoted on his heel and walked towards the door. Just before he walked out, he stopped at the door frame and, without looking over his shoulder, left Sasuke with the last words he'd ever heard from him: "Gomenasai." With that, he walked out of the room and, although Sasuke didn't know it until afterwards, out of his brother's life._

_(End flashback)_

It was after that Sasuke never saw him again. His brother never came back that night. His uncle came by that evening, already having signed a guardian contract, took him to his house. Sasuke could still remember seeing his brother's stuff still in the house and hear the cryptic words that his brother left him with.

"_Gomenasai_."

_I'm sorry_…

'_Sorry?'_ Sasuke thought, his brow furrowing. '_Sorry for what_?' Maybe his brother was telling him that he was sorry he slapped him when their parents died, or that he was sorry he couldn't help him with his homework that day. Or maybe… maybe it wasn't that at all. Maybe his brother was sorry for what he was going to do: walk out on his brother because he (probably) couldn't care for him anymore. The last thought made Sasuke's blood boil. He clutched at his coat tighter. God, if his coat could scream, it would probably be choking to death by now.

"Sasuke-kun?" The ethereal voice brought him back to reality once again.

"Aa," he replied, giving himself a good shake. "Gomen. I was just… thinking."

Sasuke watched as Sakura's face brightened a little. "Ah! Well, that's okay," she said semi-cheerfully, probably glad to know that her boyfriend actually thought now and then. Then, her eyes snapped open and flew to Sasuke. She bit her lip. "Ah, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke gave a grunt to show that he was listening.

Sakura gave a cheeky smile. "Don't you have to go to work?"

His eyes widened all the way. "Shit!" He jumped out of his seat and unbundled his coat, drawing it on before grabbing his suitcase. Just before he ran out the door, Sakura called to him. Stopping in place, Sasuke looked over his shoulder towards his girlfriend, clutching the doorknob. "Nani?" he asked, turning around to face her and crossing his arms across his chest.

Ignoring his impatience, the rosette handed him his keys. "You forgot these," she said, smiling up at him in a way that radiated so much innocence that Sasuke actually lost his working train of thought. Her eyes shone so bright green and her smile was so dazzling… it made her look so… so…

_Irresistible. _

Moving swiftly, he bent down to capture her lips in a chaste kiss. He heard her muffled gasp and relenting moan as he pressed his lips against hers a little harder, drawing his tongue out to lick her lips a little. Feeling Sakura lean in for a little more, he pulled away and smirked when he saw his effects on her, her green eyes now hazy and her lips now tinted pinker. He raised her head with a finger. "We'll continue this after I'm done with work," he said hoarsely, his breathing just as ragged as hers. Giving her one last quick kiss to her forehead, he dashed out of the house, into his car, and, trying hard not to notice the glowing look his girlfriend was giving him, he drove away.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke shifted his car into parking gear and, with a sigh, got out, brushing off his coat. It was an especially cold day, the freezing temperature fogging up his breath and pinching his cheeks. It made his hair stand out even more than usual. Walking briskly into the building and ignoring the fangirlish squeals of his coworkers, Sasuke slipped into the elevator. He checked his watch.

'_Not bad_,' he thought to himself with a smirk. After that little… _episode_ with Sakura, he wasn't late. In fact, he was ten minutes early.

_Ding!_

The raven-haired man stepped out of the elevator and strode over to his VP desk, clunking down his things and brushing his bangs back from his face before taking his seat and scraping through the forms on his desk. Immediately after getting comfy in his office, Sasuke got to work, so absorbed that he didn't notice a figure slip into his room until he heard someone speak.

"Good morning, Sasuke."

Sasuke tensed when he heard the voice and looked up from his form signing. "Aa," he replied, trying to look indifferent by returning his eyes to his work, "Good morning, Oji-san." Finishing a little letter, he put his pen down and looked up to stare his uncle in the eye. "What brings you to my office this morning?"

His uncle—who also eerily looked like Sasuke—chuckled and sat himself down. He leveled his red-brown eyes at Sasuke. "Ah, Sasuke, I just came by to talk about your recent sporadic absences these past months."

Sasuke racked through his brain. Oh. Right. The past months that were spent with Sakura the majority of the time. Gotcha. Clearing his throat, Sasuke met his uncle's eyes again. "Aa. Of course. I was just spending them off due to some personal happenings." A shrug. "Nothing much."

Even though Sasuke managed to say stuff like this without a break of sweat, inside he was pouring _puddles_ from his sweat glands. Uchihas, of course though, _never_ showed emotions under stress. Psh, they were practically masters of the stoic-ness. That was how pro they were. But of course, with the mastery of emotions also came the master to see through the masking of emotions, a trait that older Uchihas were gifted with to see right through the younger Uchihas. So…

"Nothing much? Doesn't sound like it."

Insert tensing from Sasuke.

…Sasuke was basically _screwed_.

"Hn. Madara-oji, you're overexaggerating my personal life. I assure you, it was nothing important." The younger Uchiha inwardly flinched when he saw Madara smirk the trademark Uchiha smirk and hoped that he wasn't going to be screwed over.

"Hmm… I see then," the older Uchiha replied, not exactly fully believing his nephew, but still letting it pass. "So then. How are things at school?"

Twitch. "Oji-san, it's _a university_. Not some random middle school."

His uncle gave a small, ambiguous smile. "Ah. My mistake." Madara stood up and walked around the office. Heel, toe, heel, toe. Stopping in front of the desk, the older man placed his hands down and narrowed his eyes, his eyes seeming to glow more red than brown. "Sasuke," he said, his voice suddenly ice cold, "You are still taking classes, ne?"

Sasuke felt his spine freeze over. "Hai, uncle," he responded quickly, almost eager to get away from his uncle's death stare. "Of course. You paid for my education."

Apparently satisfied with his answer, Madara slowly pushed himself off the desk and, with another ambiguous smile, said, "Ah. Good, then," and slipped out of the room.

Sasuke, after waiting a few moments while listening to his uncle's dissipating footsteps, relaxed in his seat and sighed, massaging his temples. There always was something strange with Madara-oji since the beginning. Always. Ever since his uncle had taken over the family business, he was always sending Sasuke to all sorts of schools to study for degrees. First it was for a degree in business (which was the really essential one); then it was a degree in physics. Now it was a degree in math and psychology.

And it was all Madara's doing. His uncle, reasoning that his nephew should be a jack-of-all-trades until Sasuke found an industry that was really to his own liking, sent him off to different colleges of the world. Strange, strange man. But of course, over the years, Sasuke had managed to cope with his uncle's eccentricity and go along with whatever he said—with respect, of course.

After all these years, though, Sasuke _still_ couldn't find a reason behind his uncle's biddings.

'_Probably just turning into a senile old man,_' the young man reasoned. Shrugging it off as just that, Sasuke returned to his paperwork.

**-xxx-**

Madara looked out of his window, eyeing the other buildings of the Uchiha business with some pride. Of course, he wasn't _entirely_ absorbed with how wonderful the buildings looked with their new coat of paint. Instead, he was focused on the phone he had held up to his ear—namely the conversation. His face was morphed into a cruel smirk as if he was mocking the person speaking on the other line.

"So you've finally called, ne? So glad to hear from you again. How have you been?" The old Uchiha pivoted on his heel and walked around his grand office. Heel, toe, heel, toe, heel, toe.

The voice on the other line was tangibly audible. "_Cut the formalities, Madara. I don't have the time._"

A smirk. "My, my, what a temper you've developed. Fine, then," said the business owner with an airy tone, "I'll cut my formalities as long as you have some respect for your elders, little ingrate." He rooted down to a tile. "What business do you have calling me, ne?"

A tangible smirk could be heard from the other side of the conversation. "_You should know, tono_." The surname was sarcastically drawled out, more so caustic in an emotionless tone.

The Uchiha business owner _hn_-ed. "Actually, I'd like you to enlighten me. Go ahead"—Madara's eyes seemed to glow a dark red—"Itachi."

**Author's Note:** Whoo! Yeah, this was kind of short, but since Sasuke's life is getting a little complicated, I felt like it was better to end here. Nice, ne? Sakura's problem and Sasuke's problems will eventually intertwine at some point. ;) Actually, can anyone guess what Madara's done and is presently doing? :D _**Hint**_:_ it involves the family business_. If you guess, I'll give you some spoilers… and a cookie. ^_^ Thanks you guys for all your reviews!


	13. iHave Family Problems and Friends

**Disclaimer:** I don't Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note:** _**HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY**_! :D Yay! Happy face with all of you wonderful reviewers! And thank you **.FashionMonster.** especially because YOU are my 200th reviewer! w You all make me so happy! (cries tears of joy) Anyway, just a forward here: the "Moving In" arc is going to consist of episodes of SasuSaku, so be fully prepared for oogles of romance! YOSH! After the fluffiness and humorous crack, I'll throw in some drama. :) It'll be fun! Oh, and please take notice of the first song in here. :) It will come up again.

Oh, and to answer a few review questions:

**Confused:** Heh-heh. ^_^" Sorry about the confusion there about the iPod stuff. I wasn't actually thinking when I wrote that part (because I have a friend who has the iTouch) and I forgot that iPod classics don't have the apps… so I decided to put a little bit of creative licensing to use, you know? So… it's like a cooler version of the iPod classic. ^_^

**Obsession-The-Never-Ending-Wait:** Okay, where to start… well, first of all, I didn't update them all at the same time. XD Lord knows I wish I did. But I had to work on these, you know? Not just updating them all at the same time. ^_^ Next thing: yeah, I know—there are a LOT of mistakes, but I'm saving the fixing for after I finish the story. That way I get EVERYTHING down and then people will be able to enjoy the fixed version of it, you know? Kind of weird, but that's how I roll, I guess. I'm sorry if it confused you—it's to be expected from a fanfic that runs like a drama series. (laughs) But the thing is, this fanfic is primarily about what things seem _not_ to be. Sasuke isn't really studying to be a professor; it's just a cover-up for something deeper in the plot soup. ^_^ And one more thing—ShikaTema vs. ShikaIno is ALWAYS a problem with readers, but since Temari didn't really seem to have a part in here and (as much as I love the Sand Siblings) the rest of the siblings just being in the story would really screw up everything. D: But thank you for still reading it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. ^_^

Oh, and _ONE MORE THING! :D _Just a little fun thing here. If at least ten people name _all_ of the songs in this chapter, I'll give a spoiler to the first ten. ;) Wish you luck, and so concludes the longest author's note I have ever written. :D

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 13**

**iHave Family (Problems) and Friends**

**-xxx-**

An older man leaned against his leather spinning chair, looking out of his business building with eyes that seemed to gleam like red jewels. He nodded into his phone. "I thought that was what you wanted, Itachi," he said.

_"Madara, you've always known about it," _the other speaker said in a seemingly toneless voice. However, after years of mastering the stoic voice of the Uchihas, Madara knew the voice held malicious intent—the _or else_ factor.

The older man smirked and took a few steps toward the window. "And what if I did?" Another step. "You couldn't have stopped me otherwise, Itachi."

_"I would have if—"_

"If it weren't for me?" Madara completed for him. The trademark Uchiha smirk slithered across his face. "Well, that was the idea, Itachi. You know I can't let you see him. Not when I have all this wealth, this _power_ in my hands." The old Uchiha gestured to the entire building despite the fact that the young man on the other side had no sight of it.

A hiss could be heard on the other side of the conversation. _"Madara, I swear to _God_ I will_—_"_

"You'll what, Itachi?" challenged Madara, still holding the stoic voice. "You can't threaten one of the most powerful men in the world. No one would even _dare_."

Silence. On the other side, it sounded like wind was blowing. Then Itachi spoke. _"Well then, I guess it's time that fact changed."_ The connection seemed to garble. _"I'll stop this hide-and-seek game once and for all."_ With a _click!_ of the receiver, he was gone.

Madara stared at the phone, a cruel smirk plastered onto his face as he listened to the ominous dial tone. "Stop it, huh?" muttered the Uchiha as he placed the phone down and sat down in his leather chair, leaning back and placing his feet on the desk. "We'll see."

**-xxx-**

Itachi looked at his cell phone with seemingly unexpressive eyes. Inside though, he was _itching_ to break it and toss it out of the plane. '_Madara… he doesn't know where to stop._'

Of course his uncle would go to such great lengths like these. Just one moment, _one moment_ that he was away, and Madara chose to take advantage of the situation. Oh, God, he remembered coming home from the business trip that day and seeing the house clean of life. He remembered desperately looking for his little brother—but all he found was a sticky note with a red wheel. Red wheel… the pattern that Madara had in his eyes that gave that nasty, despicable red gleam to his eyes every time he had an idea. And what an idea it was that time, running off with Sasuke in order to put that "Steal the Company" plan into action. Of course, Sasuke was clueless about what was going on.

Itachi squeezed his cell phone tighter. '_No… this time, Sasuke's going to know everything. That way…_'

That way the two of them could regain the company together.

"Excuse me, sir, would you like anything?"

Itachi turned to the flight attendant and gave her an ambiguous smile, ignoring the eagerness in the lady's eyes that every young lady seemed to have when they laid their eyes upon an Uchiha. "No thank you, ma'am. I'm fine." The Uchiha turned back and stared at his reflection in the window, back into semi-auburn, semi-obsidian eyes, back at a seemingly carved face, and back at a man who was finally going to get life back to the way it was supposed to be.

"I'm coming, little brother," he murmured almost inaudibly, looking at the eyes of a tired man. "I'm coming."

**-xxx-**

Sasuke gave a sigh of relief as he took a left turn on a streetlight. God, was he happy to get away from _that building_. His uncle had always put him off… I mean, why in the world would Madara send him off to numerous colleges and have them move practically _everywhere_ around the world? _What did he want from it all? _Whatever. Work was finally done with; there weren't any classes tomorrow; and he could _finally_ finish that little episode with Sakura when he got home. Sasuke smirked in anticipation when he drove into his garage and stepped out of the car.

"I'm home," he called, walking into his house and looking for any signs of Sakura. He checked the kitchen. Nope. Her bedroom? Nada. '_Where the hell is she_?' Walking toward the balcony, Sasuke, seeing a head of pink, confirmed her whereabouts. Now if only he could find out what she was doing…?

Sakura sat there on the balcony, apparently just having stepped out of the shower, her semi-wet hair flowing over her shoulders and curling at the ends. She was wearing only a light yellow cotton dress with a sweater draped over her shoulders. In her hand was her iPod. One pink headphone dangled at her side. Sasuke could hear the music playing. Coming in a little closer, Sasuke could hear Sakura faintly singing along.

…'_**Cause I have photographs and memories of the times **_

_**When you weren't on my mind and I was alone**_

Sakura drew in a shaky breath and continued to sing, her voice seeming to break. Sasuke stood and listened.

_**I have poetry and drawings of my life**_

_**When you weren't on my side and I didn't know**_

_**Just what is love…**_

The last word ended on a sad note. Another heartfelt song that was probably meant from Sakura to Sasuke.

"You can come on out, Sasuke-kun."

Busted. Sasuke walked toward her casually as if he hadn't just been caught. He stood back, watching as she swung her legs around from the edge of the balcony and landed unsteadily on the actual balcony. She caught herself before she had the chance to fall into Sasuke's arms. Which would have been totally clichéd, by the way.

Sasuke smirked at her, looked at her dress. "Miss me?"

She smiled up at him. "Kind of," she replied. "Mostly missed someone to hug—it's freezing." She wrapped her arms around him, loving the feel of the heat that radiated from his body.

He generously complied, putting his arms around her so that he enveloped her in his warmth. He bent down, leaning in so that his lips were at her ear. "I have an idea that'll get you nice and warm," he murmured, loving the way she shivered. His arms tightened around her.

She flinched. "Ow, Sasuke-kun." She pulled in a shaky breath. "My burn."

"Aa, I forgot. I'm sorry." He loosened his grip and was about to pull away when he heard the rosette give a small whine.

"Sasuke-kun…" she whimpered, tightening her hold on him and burying her head in his chest. "That didn't mean 'let go of me.'"

He pressed his lips into her hair, taking in her beautiful scent of cherry blossoms and vanillas. "Then what do you want me to do, _Sa-ku-ra_?" He smirked when he felt her shiver.

"I—" She let out another shiver when she felt Sasuke's lips graze her forehead. "I… want us to finish…" Sakura felt her face heat up. "I want us to finish what we started…" The rosette swallowed a little, hoping that they weren't going to get past kissing and move on… to _that_.

Another smirk. "As you wish." Lifting her head up so that he could meet her emerald gaze, he dropped his head and let his lips cover hers, carefully wrapping her back into his arms and loving the way that she just seemed to fit with him.

Sakura sighed and melted into him, loving the way he held her so delicately as if she would break—but she especially loved the way that he made her feel when he _kissed_ her. Pulling on some strings of courage and pushing away doubtful thoughts of the morning, she shyly opened her mouth, inviting him in to explore.

Sasuke, giving a small chuckle at her timid attempts, gladly accepted the invitation, slipping his tongue in slowly and touching the muscle in the pinkette's mouth. As his lips caressed hers, his arms glided down her body, fingering the lace of her dress and making sure not to irritate the burn on her back. Sasuke backed the rosette against the balcony's edge and nibbled at her bottom lip. That was when she _moaned_. The raven-haired man shuddered. Oh, God, how he wanted her, how he adored the taste of her cherry lips. He felt like he could never get enough of her, that he was _insatiable_ around her, wanting to just forget everything in the world, place her on that bed and take her away...

The only thing that was in the way at the moment was just a thin, lacy yellow dress…

Realizing that she full-out moaned, she whimpered, blushing in embarrassment at the sound she made as she pulled away slightly. She had to keep herself in control—had to, had to, _had to_ before she'd lose her mind and…_ something else_ to him.

Sasuke, already dizzy with her kisses and desperate with her touch, tightened his hold on her. He growled, clutched the both of her arms and looked square into her wide, innocent eyes. His eyes seemed to glow auburn red in the depths of his obsidian eyes. "Sakura," he said huskily, keeping his eyes trained on hers, "Don't pull away." He kept his hands firm on her forearms and his body pressed against hers on the balcony edge, his eyes practically pleading.

Her eyes widened. She dropped her gaze to his chest and clutched at his shirt, not having anywhere else to hold. "Sasuke-kun, I—"

"Sakura."

Sakura raised her gaze to focus on the man in front of her. "Eh…?"

"Stop fighting it."

"But—"

Sasuke started on her jaw line, making his way around her face with his mouth, dropping kisses everywhere…

Except her lips.

She struggled to stand straight, mentally shouting at her knees to _not_ buckle. "Ngh, Sasuke-kun—"

He stopped at her ear. "Stop fighting it, Sakura"—he took the sweet time to nibble on her lobe—"If you want me to kiss you, just say so. Stop trying to play it safe." He licked at her pulse and smirked when she failed at stifling a tremor. Another kiss on the corner of her lips. All the while, Sasuke kept his eyes locked on hers.

"Sasuke-kun, please," she whimpered through trembling lips. God, what in the world was she going to do? She wanted this man, _needed _this man (the world knew she did), but she didn't want to give up her virginity. Not now when she wasn't sure that he felt the same way. But… God, she wanted him so much, so much that it _hurt_. She wanted to kiss him and feel him touch her, make her feel _beautiful_ for once in her life.

… gah, _screw it_.

When Sasuke was about to deliver another tantalizing kiss to her neck, Sakura grabbed him by his hair and tugged him up to meet her burning gaze. Ignoring his smirk and swallowing her pride and uncertainty, she looked at him, trying to keep her breathing under control. "Stop—teasing—dammit!" When she tried to lower his lips to hers, Sasuke smirked and kept himself out of her reach.

"After putting me through all that emotional distress? You'll have to _beg_ me." Another smirk crossed his handsome face.

'_Damn him…_' she thought, gritting her teeth. "I'm _not_ begging, Uchiha. Kiss me, and do it _now_."

'_Uchiha?_' Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. Smirk. "As you wish, my lady." Sasuke let her hands run through his hair, guiding him to rosy-red lips. He re-wrapped his arms around her body and leaned her against the balcony, careful to explore every crevice of her eager mouth.

The two of them were oblivious to the cold as they stood out there on the balcony, lost in their own world and in each other…

"HEY, TEME, GET A DAMN ROOM, WILL YA?"

…until _someone_ decided to ruin the mood.

At the sound of the shrill voice, the two broke apart, Sakura dashing toward a nearby (conveniently hung) sweater, and Sasuke, staying there to look over the balcony at whoever the unlucky bastard was who interrupted his evening.

On the road, leaning on a small white mini-van with an arm around a familiar raven-haired girl, was Naruto, wearing a gigantic grin on his face and (surprisingly) an elegant overcoat. Naruto let go of the raven-haired girl—Hinata?—said a few words to her, and dashed underneath the balcony. "_But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? 'Tis the east, and _Sasuke_ is the sun_!"

From inside, Sakura laughed, coming back onto the balcony with a warm-looking sweater.

To Sasuke's dismay…

"Well recited, Naruto!" Sakura said while she clapped her hands and giggled. She looked a little closer at the car. "Hey, who's inside your van?"

Naruto, probably now realizing that there were other people inside his van, grinned sheepishly and dashed back to the van to open the car doors. "I decided to bring the rest of the gang back!"

Sasuke frowned and raised an eyebrow. "The _rest_ of the gang?"

One by one, Karin, Suigetsu, Ino and Shikamaru stepped out and waved—well, all except Shikamaru—at the couple on the balcony.

"We came by to see how you were doin', Sasu-cakes," Suigetsu said, waggling his eyebrows and sticking out his tongue.

Sasuke's eye twitched.

"And to see where Sakura was to make sure she wasn't kidnapped by some serial rapist, you know?" Ino chimed in as she flashed a peace sign at her pink-haired friend.

"Good thing we came in time, too." Karin laughed and adjusted her glasses. "Else Blondy and I here would practically castrate Sasuke for what he was about to do to you."

Was it just me, or was Sakura's face putting Karin's hair to shame?

Struggling to keep her face down to a low pink, Sakura folded her arms and muttered, "What's the _real_ reason that you guys wanted to come here?"

The three couples looked at each other and took some things out of the car: muffins, cupcakes and lots and lots of beer.

"HOUSE PARTY!" Naruto hooted. The exclamation was followed by cheers from the others.

Sasuke mentally facepalmed himself and groaned. "But this is _my_ house. Go away."

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura scolded him, starting to walk back into the house, "They just want to have a little party at the house. It'll be a little refreshing to have someone over once in a while." She was already walking down the stairs.

Sasuke stifled a sigh. '_Refreshing, my ass. Sakura's probably just excited about the beer…_' Dragging himself away from the balcony and down the stairs, the raven-haired man walked Sakura to the door to invite the guests in.

The rosette smiled at her guests, hugging Ino, Karin, and Hinata and shaking hands with the guys. Well, except Naruto—she tackle-hugged him and squeezed the air out of him. See what best friends can do?

Sasuke watched Sakura practically smother Naruto and smirked, the scene making him think back to the old days. While Sakura invited the guests in, Sasuke was presently in charge of taking all the booze and junk and placing them somewhere where people could reach them. Tablecloth and refreshments in hand, the raven-haired man quickly made up a large table and placed the muffins and cupcakes on the table. And the booze? Well, it wasn't like Sasuke didn't have _the_ playground for adults in his home—so he decided to put the beer right in the cooler next to the bar.

One can almost hear Sakura curse, "Damn rich people…"

Ino cheered and put a fist in the air. "Alright then, you guys, let's get this party started!" That was when she did something she shouldn't have—she snatched Sakura's iPod and put it on Sasuke's iHome.

"H-Hey!" The rosette floundered about, trying to reach for her beloved iPod. "What the _hell_, Ino!"

Ino waved her away. "Relax, Sak, I got this!"

"Who let George Lopez in the house?" Karin snickered as she took a beer out of the cooler and sat down at the bar.

Replying with only a snort at the redhead and a large grin at the pinkhead, Ino plugged in the iHome and picked a song. "Hm… let's see…" _Click_.

_**I hope you know, I hope you know**_

_**That this has nothin' to do with you—**_

"Oh _yuck_." Suigetsu held in a fake gag and ran over to the iPod. "Let's do this…" _Click_.

_**BOOM, BOOM, SHAKE, SHAKE**_

_**Now DROP like yo' mamma said!**_

_**BOOM, BOOM, SHAKE, SHAKE**_

_**Now DROP like yo' sista said!**_

Oh, the show that Suigetsu gave them. Every _**DROP**_ that was issued led Suigetsu to _drop_ with all the works: legs spread, tongue out, one hand dropping with him to the floor and the other on his hip.

Sasuke groaned and covered his eyes with a hand. "What the hell, Suigetsu…"

"AHHH! MY EYES!" Naruto sprung over to the iPod with his hands over his eyes. "C'mon, c'mon, give me a song that'll save my eyes!" On the title of a certain song, Naruto's blue eyes seemed to sparkle. "AH-HA! THIS IS IT, DATTEBAYO!" _Click_.

That was when all the screaming about Suigetsu's dancing and complaints about having to remove their eyes stopped. Everyone listened to the song that played in their native tongue. The Japanese that flowed from the speakers almost seemed to bless their ears.

_**Sora wo miagereba**_

_(When I look up at the sky)_

_**Hoshitachi ga hora matataiteru**_

_(The stars, see, are sparkling)_

_**Kono hoshi no hitodachi mitai ni**_

_(Each giving off its own light)__**  
Samazama na hikari wo hanatte…**_

_(Like the people on this planet…)_

Hinata turned to Naruto. "N-Naruto-kun, I didn't know that you had such wonderful taste in music…"

"Eh? Oh, well I like this song." The blond turned to Sakura and flashed a smile. "Thanks for saving our lives. Now…" Naruto turned back to Hinata and held out his hand, giving her a tender smile. "May I have this dance, my lady?"

The lavender-eyed young lady returned the smile and gently took his hand. "But of course." She let him lead her out to dance in the living room.

(Which, by the way, shouldn't have been a living room _at all_—it looked like a freaking _ballroom_.)

"Hey, Sui-kun, how about we go dance, too?" Karin asked the white-haired man while she held the half-drunken beer in her hand.

He smirked. "It would be my pleasure." Taking the beer from her hands and placing it on a nearby coffee table, he led her out to the ballroom living room.

Which meant that only Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino and Shikamaru remained. With Shikamaru already dead asleep on the couch, Ino sighed before she let her eyes wander around the house. "Nice house, Sasuke. Beer bar, ballroom, _ginormous_ sound system—what's next? You got some cooking talent, too, or something?"

The raven-haired man kept a poker face. The only movement of his face was the slight twitch of the corners of his lips. "Actually, I do."

Wait. _What_? Someone rewind to that.

"Eh?" Ino and Sakura said in unison.

The young man shrugged. "I can cook."

The girls seemed to freeze. Their thoughts were exactly the same: _What the hell? When did _this_ happen?_

"Sasuke-kun, you never told me that you could cook," Sakura said, breaking their thoughts.

Smirk. "I could cook you guys something if you don't believe me."

Ino mirrored his smirk. "Alright then, it's a bet." She put a finger to her lip and thought a moment. With a snap of her fingers, Ino said, "Walnut shrimp!"

Shikamaru stirred in his sleep. "_Shrimp_~…"

The three of them watched as Shikamaru turned on his side before they turned back to look at each other.

"What are the circumstances?" Sasuke drawled, getting right to business.

The blonde thought for a moment. "Mm… well, there isn't much. And I'll cut you a break by letting you have one person help you."

Sasuke caught on fast. Smirk. "Alright then." He turned to the rosette—who was currently listening to the song and humming along to it—and pulled her along into the kitchen.

"H-Hey, wait, what are you _doing_, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura struggled to pull free, but with Sasuke's iron grip, there was no way she'd be able to. When he finally managed to pull her into the kitchen, he let her go, closing the door behind them. "What the hell's going on, you?" the pink-haired girl spouted, steam practically rolling out of her head. "I was listening to the song!"

Ignoring her bantering, Sasuke pulled out a frying pan and lit up the stove. "You're helping me cook walnut shrimp," he said as he got out some butter.

Sakura crossed her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter, sticking her chin out defiantly. "Oh, yeah? And why should I, huh?"

Sasuke stopped and put down the pans. With a turn of his head, he met her gaze and gave her a good, long smirk. "Because if you don't…" He walked up to her and cornered her against the counter. Pulling her chin up, he pressed his lips against hers with as much passion and force as possible.

Sakura moaned and tried to hold herself up, pressing her forearms against the counter. The passion made her brain hazy—nothing seemed to work during those minutes.

That was when Sasuke let her go of her lips. Breathing harshly, the raven-haired man managed to drag his lips to her ear and whisper, "…I'll never kiss you like this again."

'_Never?_' she thought.

_**'Aw hell, that ain't fair!'**_ her inner whined.

After getting her breathing under control and shoving him off of her, she shifted her gaze to the ground and muttered, "Fine," ignoring Sasuke's triumphant smirk.

Then, they got to work.

**-xxx-**

The three couples outside, who were standing right outside the kitchen door with their ears pressed against it, couldn't help but snicker. Well, all of them except for Hinata, who was blushing from the noises inside the kitchen, and Shikamaru, who was still sadly knocked out cold.

Ino and Karin did a high five.

"They're getting it on, Blondy!"

"Chyeah, they are!"

Suigetsu waggled his eyebrows at Naruto. "I knew Sasu-cakes had some straight in him."

"Oh, _sure_," Naruto muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, "He always pulls out that stick in his ass for Sakura-chan."

"Shh!" Hinata put a finger to her lips. "Naruto-kun, please be quiet! They'll hear us!"

Pushing themselves at the door, they struggled to listen at the door…

…

"Sasuke-kun, you're putting way too much coconut sauce on the shrimp!"

Sakura waved her arms like a flounder desperately trying to get Sasuke away…

From a bowl of coconut sauce.

With which he was currently drowning the poor, batter-fried shrimp and holding in one hand while he kept Sakura at a distance.

"You're drowning the shrimp!" Another floundering attempt to break the bowl away from his iron grip.

"Calm down, Sakura," he monotoned as he put down the coconut sauce and made the coating even. "It's all done. Now time to serve it." Sasuke turned slowly toward the rosette.

Blink. Blink. "What?"

He smirked and walked over to a nearby closet. Digging through some things, he pulled out a—

"_What the hell?_ Nuh-uh! _Uh-uh!_" Sakura made a cross over her face with her arms. "No way am I putting on that—that"—

—_maid_ _costume_.

"Omigod, I can't believe you'd have something like _that_ stashed in your kitchen closet!" she rambled, backing away from the man who kept approaching her with the maid outfit. "And who the hell has a _closet_ in their _kitchen_?"

"Sakura, don't make this harder than it needs to be." Jeez, even while he was trying to coax a girl into wearing a maid outfit, he _still_ talked like a fucking robot.

Sakura dodged his attempt to grab her. "Hells _no!_ Help—any—!" A pair of strong arms cut her short, holding her against a nicely toned chest… and in front of a maid's outfit. Her bottom lip protruded into a pout. "Sasuke-kun, please don't make me do this… it's _embarrassing_."

Another smirk crossed his face as he put the maid outfit over her head. "All the better."

Aw, hell.

**-xxx-**

"Hey, Sasuke, what the hell's taking so long, huh?" Just as the blonde was about to knock, the kitchen door swung open…

…revealing a very cutely dressed up Sakura.

The maid's outfit clung to her like a second skin, revealing all the delicious curves that would bring a king down on his knees. It was typical—the black dress and shoes, the white apron, hat and knee socks—but at the same time, elegant and beautiful. Her arms were shrouded by white gloves of lace and her hat made her seem small and sweet. Her blushing face was the final touch.

Sasuke leaned against the door admiring his handiwork. Holding out the plate, Sakura muttered, "One plate of walnut shrimp."

"Oh, Sakura, you look so _kawaii!_" Ino squealed, hugging the small pink-haired girl by the neck and nuzzling her affectionately. "I could just eat you up!"

"Need I remind you that I'm twenty-four?" she grumbled, putting down the plate so that the blonde wouldn't destroy all their hardwork.

Ino looked toward Sasuke and gave him a thumbs-up.

He gave a small smirk in reply.

Shikamaru stirred. Rubbing his eyes from the sleep, he sniffed the air. "Is that… _shrimp_?"

"HELL YEAH, IT IS!" Naruto pitched in, spearing a shrimp with a toothpick, "The teme made it all by himself—with some help from Sakura-chan, that is." He popped the shrimp into his mouth. _Nom, nom, nom_. Swallow. "Hey, that's actually pretty good—and I didn't die."

"Oh, Naruto-kun," Hinata lightly scolded before she let out a small giggle.

"Hey, Sasu-cakes, get me some of that shrimp, will ya?" Suigetsu asked, not exactly willing to stand up from the bar and walk a few feet away from his beloved girlfriend.

The raven-haired man scowled darkly at him. "If I manage to lay a finger on one of my shrimp for you, I'll shove it so far down your throat, you'll never know which way it'll come out of."

Suigetsu sweat-dropped. "On second thought, Karin-dear, will you excuse me? I need to get some shrimp." He put his beer down and scurried over to the table of goodies.

The redhead sighed and gulped down some more beer. She looked around, taking in Naruto and Hinata laughing and eating, Ino and Shikamaru talking on the couch, Suigetsu taking some shrimp from the walnut shrimp plate… and Sasuke and Sakura, the raven-haired man staring down affectionately at the rosette while she unknowingly scolded him for making her wear the silly maid's outfit. Karin smiled when she saw them. She put down her beer and sighed again. '_Oh, Pinky,'_ she thought dreadfully for the future, '_Please make the right choice._'

**-xxx-**

Finally, the party was over—everyone had gone home, the mess had just been cleaned up and it was _finally_ time for bed. The couple was downstairs. Well, Sasuke was downstairs—Sakura was upstairs getting ready for bed.

The raven-haired man stifled a yawn, taking a drink of water to keep him from dozing off on the bar. He had to stay awake until Sakura had gone to bed so that he knew that she'd be okay before he went to bed. She had barely been able to walk up the stairs after the party, but when he'd asked her if she wanted him to help her get undressed, she just grew red in the face and slammed the door shut.

Gee, I wonder why…

That was when he heard a loud _thump!_ from the upstairs.

He jolted from his seat, not bothering to fix the overturned stool before he dashed up the stairs. "Sakura?"

He didn't hear an answer when he stumbled down the hall.

"_Sakura!_"

Bursting into her room, Sasuke expected devastation, disaster, _anything_ that would break his heart and send him into a frenzy… but it wasn't that at all. On the floor, there was Sakura, tangled up in a lavender nightgown, her beautiful pink hair unruly and framing her flushed face. Sasuke felt like he'd stopped breathing. Why did she have to be so beautiful? And, judging by the way the nightgown was tangled around her, she wasn't exactly dressed…

'_**C'mon, Sasuke, you know you want to see her without all those complicated layers she puts on all the time…'**_ Inner Sasuke seemed to taunt him.

He pushed his inner away. '_Shut up. What do _you_ know?_'

'_**I know that you want to see her like this…'**_

Images of Sakura underneath him, pink hair fanned out behind her head like a large halo, legs sprawled apart, and shining, lustful emerald eyes staring back at him, moaning his name and telling him to keep going, to never stop.

On seeing Sasuke, the rosette struggled, probably trying to escape the embarrassment.

Sasuke pushed down the nasty images his mind had produced. "Sakura…?" Sasuke walked toward her, kneeling on the floor and gently pulling at the light purple piece of clothing. "What happened?"

Sakura felt her face flush. "Um… I just fell." Feeling the piece of clothing loosen its hold on her, she freed her arms and clutched onto the nightgown. "I tried to put on the nightgown, but then I… _kinda_ failed." A sheepish grin claimed her face. "Kind of stupid, huh?"

"Really stupid, actually." He pulled the piece of clothing out of her hands.

"H-Hey, Sasuke-kun, I'm not dressed!" Sakura desperately tried to get the gown back, but Sasuke had all ready put it over her head and let it flow over her body before he himself could get a really good look.

He wordlessly tugged her arms through the arm holes and, finally finished with his work, looked at her, taking her in as she was now—not like a horny bastard would to a naïve little girl, but as a young man who cherished a young woman. '_I don't think I'd ever be able to say _love_…_' He looked her over carefully.

Her pink hair was still unruly, but it was a beautiful look for her, especially for her in that lavender nightgown that brought out the shine in her skin. Her green eyes looked up at him, in appreciation, in hope—and in love.

Sasuke wanted to mope. It was so bittersweet—all that time, he had pushed her away, not wanting to do anything with her, ignoring all of her kindness and reciprocating them with insensitive remarks, always telling her that she didn't and never would understand him. But she did—she loved him, befriended him and took his hand when no one would, cried for him when others could care less, and grew to be a person who understood him. That was why he could never love her, why he could never say those endearing three words to her that every woman wished for, because he never even once made her happy, never once made her proud of him; he just wasn't good enough for her.

"Sasuke-kun?" a gentle voice said while a gentler touch caressed his hand.

_Snap_—back to reality. "Aa, I'm sorry," he murmured, giving her a kiss to the forehead. "I was just daydreaming." Wanting to change the subject, he asked, "Your burn isn't doing well, right? Let's go downstairs and get some of that ointment for you." Before she was able to protest, he had already swept her up in his arms and started down the stairs.

When he reached the living room, he put her down on the sofa. "Here, just lie there. I'll get the ointment." Then he disappeared into the kitchen.

Lying there on the sofa, she heard him rustling through the medicine cabinet.

She hugged the pillow tight. "Sasuke-kun…" Four years ago, she wouldn't even believe it if Sasuke actually carried her, kissed her. Hell, four _months_ ago, she wouldn't have even believed it if she had even heard that Sasuke'd come back. The past years had been the bane of her existence, the most depressing times of her life. But she had managed—right? Her grip on the pillow tightened. It was no use—Sasuke's leaving still haunted her. '_I still can't forget_…'

"Oi, Sakura, I've found it."

The rosette shot up, sitting ram rod straight. "Right! Now what do I have to do?"

"Aa… you…" Sasuke turned away, trying to push down the heat threatening to cross his face. "Just pull down the back of your nightgown."

Sakura laughed, seeing the microscopic blush on his cheeks. "Sasuke-kun, there's nothing to blush about… It's just my back." Slipping her arms out of the nightgown, she lay down on the couch and brushed her long pink hair to the other side.

Even though it was his second time seeing her scar, it _still_ affected him so much—the redness, the shape, the probable pain Sakura was going through was enough to send him out of his house and down to the university where those homicidal girls were… His fingers almost twitched thinking about it. Pushing down his instincts, Sasuke took in a deep breath. '_Calm down. Violence isn't the answer_.' Taking the cap off the ointment, he squeezed some of the cream into his hand and, as gently as he could, smoothed some over the burn. He heard her suck in a breath and watched as she clutched at the couch for dear life. "Just hold on, Sakura," he murmured, rubbing it into the burn as gently as possible. "Just a little more."

She whimpered. "Okay… just hurry up, tho—"

"Done." Standing up quickly, the raven-haired man quickly recapped the tube and walked into the kitchen, putting the tube back into the medicine cabinet. "Let's get you upstairs," he said once he returned to the rosette. Before he could pick her up, she placed a hand on his chest, stopping him.

"It's okay, Sasuke-kun," she told him, giving him a smile and pushing herself off the couch, trying not to wince. "Just help me to my room."

Reluctantly obeying, Sasuke took her hand and led her up the stairs, showing her into the guest room that he had made for her. He stood in the doorway, looking down at her. "Good night."

She smiled at him—sad and sweet. "Good night, Sasuke-kun." The door swung shut and all was quiet. Sakura listened to his receding footsteps before she sighed and jumped on her bed, thinking about the future… and those university papers. "What am I going to do with those…?" she muttered. The university contract was an excellent way to start a great reputation and find a wonderful job to support her, but then why would she choose a joint university contract while she was already happy with her current college, not to mention she had a relationship with the man of her dreams? She looked at her books on the desk nearby and tiptoed over, taking out the university papers and taking a seat on her bed. '_I'm going to have to decline these… It's a great opportunity, but…_'

"But I'm happy here."

She stuffed the papers into her backpack and collapsed on her bed. '_I'm happy here…'_ That was her last thought before she closed her eyes and faded away.

**-xxx-**

_Sakura woke up, breathing hard. '_What a weird dream…_' Turning her head, her eyes caught her reflection in the window. '_What…?_' She looked closer and her eyes widened—that was her eighteen-year-old self. She shook her head and looked out the window, gazing up at the moon. It seemed to smile down at her like a loving parent. _

_ She felt something tug at her mind. '_What's this feeling?_' she thought, desperately trying to push the nagging feeling away. "Something's wrong." Tugging on her shoes and clothes, she opened her window and jumped out, landing safely in the bushes. "Something's terribly wrong. But what?" As she walked down the dark, empty street, she watched as a streetlight flickered—on, off… on, off. Out of nowhere, the mental image of a familiar raven-haired man hit her. "Sasuke-kun?"_

_ She took off, her mind not in control anymore. It was only her feet that led her to where she felt like she had to go, like she was only acting on instinct. She forced herself to slow down and breathed, gulping down gallons of air. "Where am I?" That was when she spotted something a good hundred meters away. It was a well-known mansion, one that was practically bragged about day-to-day by passing civilians of Konoha—well, long ago, that was how it was. Now, it seemed dark, desolate. No one lived there but the surviving part of the Uchiha family, a young man of the same age as her: Uchiha Sasuke. She knew him and his old family well, since they were both five or so. His popularity was raging since then, and since then, she seemed like an ordinary girl when she was standing next to him. But that wasn't the point: the point was that his family was like a second family to her—and they had disappeared. Fugaku and Mikoto—father and mother—died in a car accident; Itachi, Sasuke's older brother vanished two years later. _

_ "Why did I come here?" she asked herself, cautiously approaching the manor. Then, she saw something—and gasped. _

_A few blocks down from the manor, a large black car was parked. The driver was fast asleep and was apparently waiting for someone. In the seat next to the driver was a man. _

_Sakura hid in a bush near the front door, far away from the black car's sight. "Is that… Sasuke-kun?" _

_It looked so much like him—spiky hair, well-structured jaw… if only she could see his face. _

_That was when the front door opened—and a certain young man stepped out. _

_The rosette's eyes widened. "Sasuke-kun…" she whispered. She forgot about the other man in the car. Everything seemed to fade away when she saw him. _

_The young man stood in the doorway, looking back into the mansion. Sakura caught sight of the suitcase in his hand. That was right—he was looking back at the mansion for the last time. _

"_Sasuke-kun," she whispered once more. She stepped out of the bush. "Sasuke-kun."_

_Hearing someone call his name, he startled and turned to where Sakura stood, glaring at whoever stood in the dark. "Who's there?" he asked, keeping his voice suspiciously low. "Who the hell are you?"_

_Sakura stepped out of the shadows. "It's me."_

_They looked at each other in silence for a while. _

"_What are you doing?" Sakura asked him, gesturing to his suitcase. "What's going on?"_

_Sasuke _hn-_ed at her. "What do you think?"_

"_Well, it looks like you're _leaving_!" she cried, looking at him in the eyes, trying to find something that supported the denial that she felt. Oh, God—oh, _God_, please. She didn't want this. She didn't _need_ this to happen. '_Whatever happened to _happily ever after?' she thought, pushing away that tears that threatened to spill. "Sasuke-kun, please, tell me this isn't true."_

"_Hn. I never thought you'd be so ignorant." His eyes looked cold, unforgiving and just…_empty_. _

_Her own green eyes fired back sparks. "Why?"_

"_Why what?" he drawled lazily, his free hand in his pocket. "I have to get going or else—"_

"_Why are you leaving?" The tears she desperately tried to hold back were spilling over her cheeks. She tried to search his eyes again in the silence that ensued. "Answer me, dammit!"_

"_Hn." The raven-haired man started walking, pulling his luggage along. _

"_Stop!" She looked after him._

_He didn't._

"_Stop!" she called again, now trying to catch up with him. "Please… Sasuke-kun, please…" The tears fell, one by one. "Please, Sasuke-kun, please tell me what's going on."_

_He stopped. "Why do you have to go around putting your nose in other people's business?"_

"_I don't..." Her tears fell to the concrete like dead bodies. "Please, Sasuke-kun, I'll under—"_

"_No, you won't." He stayed where he was. "You won't and I don't think you ever will."_

"_But—"_

"_When will you ever understand," he stated, his voice dangerously low, "the pain of losing the people you love? You have so many things to be thankful for—family, friends—things I don't have."_

_Sakura took a step forward and wiped away , ignoring the insensitivity of his words and the way they seemed to pierce through her heart. "But it won't be the same if you're gone!" Took another step forward. "I—I—!" The tears seemed to cloud her eyes and her sense of judgment. "I love you so much… please… don't leave me." Her hand reached out to hold him, but he seemed so far away._

_The raven-haired man stood there for a while, as if he was soaking in the information. He pivoted on a heel and turned to face her, his famous smirk crooked on his face and his black, depthless eyes slightly glimmering. "You really are annoying." With those words, he turned around and strolled toward the black car that awaited his arrival. _

_Sakura, once stunned, moved once more. "Wait! Sasuke-kun, stop! Don't leave!" _

_Sasuke seemed so far away, his back toward her. _

_She broke into a run. He was so far, so far away. _

"_SASUKE-KUN!" _

…

Sakura awoke with a start, a cold sweat already abraded across her forehead. She held her head in her hands, panting desperately. "It was a dream…" A dream that forced her to relive that experience once more… She laughed, thinking to herself how hollow it sounded in the middle of the night. "God…" Her hands shook, and she shivered, taking a glance over at the clock on the nightstand. _3:20 a.m._, it read. "First night and I'm already having dreams like this." She tried to keep her hands from shaking, giving another bitter laugh. "This is crazy. He's not going to leave me again. He..."

'_He… loves me… doesn't he?_'

She shook the discomforting dream away and got out bed. "He's with me now. That's all that matters."

'_But I want him next to me where I can hold him… just to be sure…_'

She slowly walked down the hall.

**-xxx-**

_The next thing Sasuke knew, he was looking at a six-year-old version of himself staring his own bloody knees while he sat on a river bank. _'What is this…?' _he thought as he looked down at his younger self and felt every single of his emotions. He didn't know where he was, why he was here—all he knew was that his knees hurt and Mommy was nowhere to be found. Tears fell down from his large, dark eyes into the seemingly depthless river below. _

_ He sniffled. "Mommy… Father… where are you?" _

_ Sasuke watched as he saw his parents cross the hill to him, his mother embracing him and kissing him like she always used to, and his father, staring coldly at him. _"I remember this…" _Sasuke muttered to himself while he watched on. _"This was the day my father…"

Smack!

_ The loud noise made Sasuke jerk his attention over to his little dream self, who was now clutching his cheek in pain. _

_ "Father?" he said naïvely. "What—"_

_ "You ridiculous little boy," his father said in that practiced toneless voice, "Boys aren't supposed to cry." _

_ "W—We aren't?" he said questioningly in reply. "Why not?"_

_ Fugaku looked at him in repulsion. "Because men are not made to shed tears or show emotions," he answered, standing tall. "Men, especially Uchiha men, are made to hold emotions as a secondary problem, not a primary issue." He tugged his son up on his feet and brushed him off. "Cast your emotions aside; you won't need them." _

_ Little dream Sasuke looked down at his feet in submission. "Yes… Father."_

_ Sasuke felt it, felt everything—the pain, the suppression, the ache to be accepted by his father. The vision blurred—and replaced itself with another. _

…

_The next scene was absolutely _gruesome_. Blood seemed to cover the floors of a dark and dreary place—something that smelled like the dead. A young black-haired boy was leaning over two particular bodies while another older boy stood nearby, watching him. _

_Sasuke looked down at the dream, his breath quickening and his eyes widening. _"What is this…?" _he managed to breathe, looking down at the red puddles that seemed to flow from the two people on the ground. When it seemed like his eyes couldn't get any larger, they expanded practically half of his face. _"Wait," _he said, taking a good look_, "This is…"

_ "C'mon," Sasuke heard his dream self say as he shook his dead mother's shoulders. "C'mon, Mom, this isn't funny—I-I know you're just sleeping."_

_ Sasuke's breath came in little, shallow gasps. He just had this memory earlier on. What in the world was going on? _"Why… why the hell is all of this happening? Why aren't I waking up?"

_ "Goddammit, Dad, don't fuck with me!" _

"Those words…."

_ A smack rang through the morgue. _

"That… slap…"

Itachi's voice followed. _"Get up. You're acting weak." _

'Weak._' That word again. It was always that word. Why did it always have to apply to him? _

_ The scene dissipated, leaving Sasuke to himself in a deep, black abyss. There was nothing he could hold on to, nothing he could lean on for support, nothing he could do to keep himself from feeling like he was falling, falling, falling… _

_ An inimical chuckle echoed throughout the darkness, engulfing Sasuke within it. _

_ His eyes shot out, searching for the source. "Who's there? Huh?"_

_ But of course, he was still in a dream, his dream subjects unable to hear and see him. Instead of finding his source, the source found him. Sasuke found himself looking from the darkness toward a small glimmer of light. Then, he saw a familiar scene, a memory that used to be in the bank of unimportance. _

_ His uncle Madara sat by a fire in a large armchair, holding a cup of tea to his smirking lips. _

_ "Madara-oji," said dream Sasuke. Sasuke looked at his dream self, estimating his age. '_This was about a year or two ago when Madara and I were still traveling the world for my studies…'_ he thought, looking on. _'London, perhaps…'

_ His uncle looked up from the fire, his red eyes gleaming like rubies. "What is it, Sasuke?" he drawled lazily as if a conversation with the young man was a waste of time. _

_ "Why is it that you're sending me off to all of these different colleges?" asked the monotonous dream Sasuke, staring at his uncle straight in the eye. "I've already gotten my business degree. Let me take care of the company while you enjoy some time in a retirement home, or something."_

_ For a moment, Madara stared at his nephew blankly before his lips curved into a sort of malicious smirk. "Dear nephew, you're not ready yet. You need more experience, which is why I'm sending you off to all these colleges." He turned away and sipped at his tea, his face hidden by the arm chair's large back. "Besides, you're still not half of what Itachi was."_

_ Sasuke felt an anger flare up in himself and in his dream self. "WHAT?" dream Sasuke growled. "Itachi left me, left _you_"—he walked so that he stood in front of Madara near the fire—"If you think I'm half of what that—that"—he floundered for a word—"_deserter_ was, then you're just as—"_

_ "Just as what?" his uncle challenged calmly, giving his nephew a red-eyed gaze. He put his teacup down and took Sasuke by the shoulder, led him toward the window. "Dear nephew, I'm merely educating you in the ways of the businessman—"_

_ "By making me get a degree in _fashion_?" spat the nephew, disgusted by his uncle's repugnance. _

_ "Dear Sasuke, Itachi would have done all of this, would have become a jack-of-all-trades in order to do everything that was needed of this." He gestured to the outside of the window. "I am preparing you for the time when you gain the throne of the company, for the world." He squeezed his nephew's shoulders as affectionately as an Uchiha would be able to be. "Besides, I'm sure your father and mother would have approved of my methods."_

_ Dream Sasuke tensed. "Mother… and Father…?"_

_ Sasuke didn't notice Madara's eyes glow a brighter shade of red. "Why, yes, your father always approved of me—best brother he'd ever had, in fact." He turned Sasuke toward him and patted him on the head. "_That_ is why I look upon you as my own son." _

_ The memory faded away, leaving Sasuke back in the shadows. Images flooded his mind: his father, the man who he had always wanted to impress and the one who Sasuke wanted to be accepted by; his mother, the woman who had showed him so much kindness; and Itachi, his older brother who had always had what he had wanted, his father's acceptance, the company once it was in his hands, and talent unmatched by any other—it was _always_ what Sasuke wanted that was in his hands…_

…

Sasuke jolted out of bed, holding one side of his face and taking in deep breaths. "What the hell was that…?" he murmured, holding his head in his hands, his eyes still wide open. There was something… something terribly wrong that was going to happen. What else could have explained the dream?

He started when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in."

The door creaked open. Sakura stepped in. "Ah, Sasuke-kun?" he heard her say timidly as she made her way toward his bed. "Did I wake you up?"

He shook his head. "No. I just woke up. Couldn't sleep."

"Oh." She sounded… _relieved_.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, staring at her silhouette in the dark.

She fidgeted with her fingers. "Actually, there is." Sakura approached him, holding her hands out to guide her to where he was. "I… I had a bad dream." Her fingers touched his and they interlaced. "I know this sounds odd, but can I sleep with you?"

Sasuke nearly breathed a sigh of relief. "Aa," he said instead, tugging her into the bed with him. When they were both comfortably under the covers and Sakura had closed her eyes, Sasuke took the chance to look at her, to take in the sight of her beautiful face and her closed eyes and long pink hair… It was so wonderful. Then, he realized something: Itachi _didn't_ have everything that Sasuke wanted—because everything that Sasuke wanted was right here.

Gathering her in his arms, Sasuke placed a soft kiss on her forehead and slipped off into a dreamless sleep.

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:** Wow! Man, this was _the_ longest chapter I have ever written. (dies) 22 frickin' pages. Who would have thought I'd be able to drill out this much? XD Anyways, this is a New Year's present. :) Hope you enjoyed~! And please, review! Else _I'd _be the one who has nightmares about not having a full inbox the next morning. 0_0


	14. iMeet and Remeet the Family

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note: **Heh-heh. ^_^ Well, this is pretty sad… I've been dying to update, and I've been writing this thing for weeks now, writing and revising certain parts; last week was finals week, and now, we've started second semester! Ladies and gentlemen, start your apathy! :D Not only that, I've caught this weird thing where I'm hacking my guts out all over the place, fighting headaches and massive sleep deprivation problems because of how late I come home from the family business. =_= (sigh) Typical juggling of school work, social life, and running the family business all by yourself, you know?

Anyways, THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR REVIEWS! :D They mean the world to read comments and to answer any misunderstandings. Makes me feel like a legit author. ^_^

**Answering anonymous reviews**:

**Mylifeinwhole:** Ha-ha, noooope. :D I can't end it now, seeing how there's a crazy, power-seeking uncle on the loose and a brother that still needs to—well, do something that you'll find out soon enough. ;) The story's just beginning. :D And it all revolves around the iPod. :)

**Be sure to check out these stories if you absolutely love SasuSaku: **

**-**_Snow Glare_ by The Angel of Sincerity (rated T)

- _Her Patience was Rewarding _by DeepPoeticGirl (rated M for sexual content)

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 14**

**iMeet and Re-Meet the Family**

**-xxx-**

Sunlight broke through the large window of the room, casting rays of light upon a large king-sized bed where Sasuke and Sakura lay. Feeling the light brush at his eyelids, Sasuke slowly cracked his eyes open and, adjusting to the bright sunlight, blinked a couple of times before shifting his gaze to the girl in his bed. He frowned a little. '_I swore I was holding her last night_,' he thought, recollecting last night fairly well. During the course of the night, their legs tangled together and only one of Sasuke's arms wrapped around the rosette's waist. Despite everything, Sasuke couldn't help but soften at the sight of his sleeping beauty.

Sakura had ended up clutching at his shirt with her small hands like a child, her hair splayed across an unloved pillow that never held up a head. Her lips were slightly parted, letting her take in the softest sounding breaths Sasuke had ever heard.

The raven-haired man stroked her cheek with a long finger. "Sakura…" he murmured, unable to tear his eyes away from her sleeping face. "…why do you love me so much?"

'_And I'm not even worth it…_' Sasuke leaned in and pressed his lips gently on her forehead, carefully trying not to wake her up.

Despite everything, she stirred. Her hands de-clenched from Sasuke's shirt and she slowly opened her eyes, her eyelashes fluttering a little while she blinked. Sakura let out a mewling sound (curse how cute it was) while she stretched a little before she relaxed and moved her head as to have her lips brushing against Sasuke's neck. "Sasuke-kun…" she breathed, tickling his neck with her nose. "…Good morning. Did you sleep alright?"

Ignoring her question, he said, "Aa. You're awake." He shifted his position on the bed so that he was staring right at a still sleepy-looking Sakura instead of having her lips right at a sensitive spot on his neck. Hey, he was still a guy—he had _pride_, and part of that pride was not to let his girlfriend make him quiver under her no-so-mighty wake. Which, sadly, he almost did.

Sakura smiled at him, kissed his nose, and laughed when Sasuke growled at her.

"You tease," he growled into her neck before biting her sensitive spot and relishing the way she stifled her moans. "Behave or I'll do something _very_ naughty to you." He licked the sensitive spot on her neck for emphasis, smirking into her neck when he heard her whimper and felt her clutch at his shirt. Much better.

"_You're_ the tease," she muttered right back at him, shifting her gaze to look at him with accusation in her eyes, a burning flame engulfing her green orbs.

He smirked at her. "Hn. If I'm the tease…" The young man leaned down and gently bit her bottom lip. "…then what does that make you?"

The rosette felt her face flush. "It makes me Sakura, idiot," she answered, nuzzling her nose against his as if she were trying to rub away all the embarrassing effect that his stupid innuendos had on her. "Don't you have work today or something?"

Sasuke stopped and his mind seemed to blank out on him. Crap. _Crap_. He did, didn't he? Oh, God… if he didn't show up to work today, then it'd be another time that he'd miss out on work… and Oji-san wouldn't be too happy to hear that. "Aa," he grumbled, staggering out of bed and heading over to the restroom to clean up for the beginning of the day. Before he closed the door behind him, he turned to look over his shoulder at the girl in his bed, watching her play with some strands of her hair and then, when she noticed him looking at her, wink at him with a playful grin on her face.

"Hurry up and get ready, silly," she gently scolded, getting up from the bed herself to go to her bathroom. "I'll be downstairs afterwards, m'kay?"

With a nod, he shut the door, stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower, listening to the pattering of the water and her receding footsteps. Sasuke sighed. '_This isn't going to be good for Sakura if she keeps staying here… Oji-san might find out about her and have one of those stupid senile moments. But…_' But he couldn't just toss her away like that. It was wrong, considering how he would have been heartless to do that and that there were still frightening fangirls out there who would definitely kill for him. The fist he never knew he made gave a soft tap to the shower wall before it unclenched and slide down the wall's tiles. '_I have to keep her safe… No matter what._' Shutting off the water valve, he stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and went to find a change of clothes.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke walked down the stairs, the towel still around his neck, just in case his hair decided to send more droplets to stain his nice, white dress shirt. Stepping into the kitchen, he sat down at the table and stared at Sakura's figure, admiring the nice curve of her back and the way her curves seemed to flare out before returning to her small, petite shape.

Humming a happy tune, she turned around with the hot croissants in a plate—and startled at the sight of Sasuke at the table. She sighed. "Jeez, Sasuke-kun, at least give me a warning when you decide to go ninja on me." (**A/N:** Ha-ha, see what I did there? :D) She put the croissants on the table. "You almost gave me a heart-attack."

Smirk. "Hn. Not my fault your heart can't handle _this_," he answered, gesturing to himself.

A flood of pink rushed to her face before she turned away and walked to a nearby cabinet. "Conceited much?" she retorted, desperately trying to kill the blush on her face. Her hands roamed around the inside of the cabinet. "Huh… that's funny." She pushed a few jars aside and looked inside before poking back out again to turn and look at her boyfriend. "Sasuke-kun, do you have any Nutella?"

He arched an eyebrow. "Nutella?"

"You don't know what that is?" Sakura looked like she was about to have an aneurysm. "How are you such a deprived child?"

The raven-haired man scowled at her. "Hn." Shifted in his seat. "What is it, anyway?"

"Huh? Oh!" She put a finger to her lips, her eyes pointed to the ceiling as if questioning the white walls. Green eyes met his. "Well, Nutella's…" She struggled to find words. "A chocolate that spreads like peanut butter."

Another questioning glance. "Doesn't seem like something to get excited about."

Her bottom lip protruded in a pout. "Mou, Sasuke-kun, you're not enthusiastic about anything." She let out a sigh. "Well, I guess when you're at work today, I'll go out shopping for groceries and some Nutella." She held up a peace sign and winked. "I know that you'll like it. You can—"

That was when some kind of—_vision_ hit him. He could almost imagine waking up to Sakura every day, meeting her in the kitchen, hearing her laugh at him, kissing him, and watching him head off to work. Well, it was like that _now_, but the only difference was that in his vision, Sakura's left ring finger held a glittering band.

Wait. _Hold_. Stop.

'_It's too soon…_' And a little bit too irrational at the moment. They were still in college, for the sake of God. Well, Sakura was—Sasuke had already graduated from who-knows-how-many colleges—and she was getting a great future ahead of her. He couldn't take that away from her now, and for all he knew, she might not even _want_ to consider the _idea_ of being married to someone like him. He mentally shook it off of him, tuning himself to Sakura's little speech about the wonders of Nutella.

"—tastes really creamy." The rosette looked back at Sasuke and frowned when she saw the sort of far-away look in his eyes. "Sasuke-kun, I bet you didn't even hear a word I said."

Sasuke smirked before he took her hand and pulled her onto his lap, admiring the beautiful way that her face always seemed to blush for him. "You said it tastes creamy." He pressed his lips into the hollow of her neck, letting his tongue sneak out and touch her sensitive spot. "It's like your skin," he murmured, nipping at her soft skin.

Sakura bit back a whimper. "Sasuke-kun," she said, her lips trembling, "if you leave any marks, I swear I'm going to—"

"Hn. Do what?" Another love bite. "Threats aren't going to work, _Sa-ku-ra_." He kissed her pulse.

She whimpered, not bothering to hide it as she arched her neck so that he wouldn't miss a single inch of her. "You're not—being fair—you prick," she struggled to say, a pant escaping through her lips at every two words.

The raven-haired man smirked against her neck and pulled away, taking in Sakura's trembling lips, her pink cheeks, and the way that she always seemed to fit so perfectly in his arms, whether he was holding her… or in this sort of situation. He laid a kiss on her forehead. "I'm never fair when it comes to you."

Her breath deserted her. God, it was only the second day here with him, and already they had started a sort of routine where they had intense, romantic… _sessions_ in the kitchen mornings. Curse him for being so secretly romantic. She laid her head back on his chest, letting Sasuke wrap his arms around her waist. "You're so weird."

"Hn."

"Don't you have to go to work?"

"Hn."

She socked him lightly in the arm. "I thought I told you already about your one word answers."

He smirked at her and brushed his lips across her forehead. "I'm not allowed to spend mornings with you?" he murmured, shifting in his seat so that he could meet her gaze.

At that moment, she flushed and sat ramrod straight. "Ah, no!" Her hands were making weird gesticulations all over the place. "That's not what I meant—I—you're—" She sighed and pushed herself off of him, standing up straight and looking down at her boyfriend who had cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You're going to be late for work," she said softly, "and I don't want your oji-san to be mad at you, Sasuke-kun."

For a moment, Sasuke couldn't speak. Really? That was all she was thinking about at this moment? That his uncle would scream and kick (or practically _eat_ him, for that matter) if _he_, Uchiha Sasuke—he was missing the little trumpets that would always play whenever he mentally said his name—didn't show up on time? He almost wanted to laugh and tell Sakura that it wasn't worth worrying about… but…

Sasuke had to frown. '_That would be a problem_.' And it was. If Oji-san caught him late again yet another day, what would his uncle do to find out the meaning of it? Things would go from bad to worse… and Madara would find out about Sakura. And Madara was always good with manipulating people…. His eyes narrowed at the thought.

"Sasuke-kun?" The rosette leaned over him, watching as the raven-haired man seemed to calculate something in his mind before he stood up and walked out of the kitchen. She had to smile when she saw him walk back in with his coat and briefcase, trying to tie his necktie. Then she laughed, walking up to him and shooing his hands away so that she could fix the granny knot that he had gotten it into, unaware of the fond gaze on his face shining down on her.

"Finished!" she said cheerfully, giving the necktie one final tug before letting him free.

Muttering a quick thank-you, he gave her a chaste kiss to the forehead, grabbed his keys and ran off to his car to get to work. Just before he dashed out of the garage door, he felt himself be turned around, pulled down by the necktie where he met another pair of soft lips.

When she managed to let go of his tie, she ran her hands through his hair, trying to control her erratic breathing while she gave him a sweet smile. "_That_ is how you kiss me good-bye." She beamed at him again, secretly proud that she managed to catch him off guard for once.

Sasuke, catching his breath, growled at her, absolutely humiliated for letting her have that one. Fine—war it was. In moves too quick for her to see, he managed to have her against the wall with her hands pinned over her head and her body stabilized by the pressure of his own. '_Let's see how she likes this…_' Making sure that her hands were secured, he brushed his lips against her cheek, inching painfully slow to the corner of her lips. Just as it looked as if he was about to kiss her, he quickly ducked down and placed a chaste peck on her chin.

Sakura whined at his teasing, hating how she quivered when his lips touched her nose, seeing the amused glint in his eyes. She struggled to catch his lips with hers, but with her hands pinned above her head and his body pressing hers to the wall, there was nothing she _could_ do but stay there and feel his lips burn her to her very core. "Ngh, Sa—Sasuke-kun…" She wriggled underneath him trying to get free, not noticing him stifle a groan of pleasure. Another try at his lips. No dice. Stupid height difference… Just as she was about to attempt to shove him off and pounce on him, he pushed himself off of her, jingling his keys as he twisted the knob of the door and opened it. Before he stepped out into the garage, he looked back at her, smirked, and said, "Don't forget to get that Nutella for me, babe." Getting into his car and ignoring the frustrated glares she sent him, he drove away to work.

**-xxx-**

"God, I knew I forgot something…" Sakura had already managed to get to the nearby market. Somehow. She scratched her pink head. "Dammit… I should have asked him to get my car for me…"

Oh right—_her car_. The car that she had left, abandoned in the university's parking lot near the dorms. She had forgotten about _that_. Well, at first, it wasn't a big deal; Sasuke was the one who started to drive her everywhere when they had started fake-dating at first (ah, the good ol' days, right?), and the only reason Sakura ever drove her car was to get some groceries so that she'd be able to make some sort of food as a starving student—and she'd never thought a single thing of it. But now, after walking about four miles to a supermarket, Sakura was starting to love her car _a lot more_. She nearly wanted to groan out loud from the thought of having to walk back another four miles. Thank God that she had an iPod to listen to while she jogged…

'_Might as well start shopping…_' she mentally grumbled, grabbing a shopping basket and rushing on over to the food aisles. "Time to get a Nutella jar for Sasuke-kun first…" She walked into the jar aisle—and frowned when she saw that the Nutella jars were all the way on the top shelf. The girl sighed, ready to ask someone for help… until a jar seemed to jump from the top shelf and plunge down toward her head. With quick reflexes—thank God that she joined the badminton team in high school—she jumped out of the way and managed to catch the jar with her basket. "Whew… that was scary…"

Not to mention absolutely odd… maybe the Nutella jars wanted to commit suicide today—or the solid chocolate gods were smiting her because she converted to spreadable chocolate. Hmm—definitely the second reason.

Shaking off the strange experience, she plugged her ears with her headphones. '_I feel like making spaghetti today…_' She picked out a packet of spaghettis and sought to search for a jar of tomato sauce. Then, the song came on.

_**Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend**_

_**No way! No way! Think you need a new one!**_

Before she knew it, she was already dancing to the song, unknowingly waving her hands and step-jumping to Avril Lavinge's lyrics—

—and accidentally bumping right into the chest of another person, dropping her basket, the packet of noodles and plastic jars of sauce and Nutella rolling right of out—and she followed the exact same fate, landing right on her butt on the hard tiled floor.

"Ow…" she complained, rubbing her poor bottom and jerking her chin up to look up at the person who was _definitely_ going to get a serious kick to the face, only to see a man—what, five years older than her?—picking up her basket and its contents off the floor. '_Whoa…_'

_Whoa_ was definitely necessary for this kind of situation. The young man, already walking toward her, looked eerily similar to another young man that she knew. Black bangs framed his sharp yet elegant features, and black eyes (were those _red_-ish specks she also saw?) shone from his face. She had half-expected chicken butt hair jutting out from behind, but instead, she managed to make out a nice little ponytail that hung loosely on his back.

He held out his hand to her, pulling her up off the floor and wordlessly handed her the basket. "Excuse me," he murmured, sounding as if he had only said such words because it was the _etiquettely correct _thing to say.

Sakura didn't miss the way he saw his eyes slightly widen when he took in her pink hair. She took the basket back gratefully. "Thank you. You'll have to excuse me also, sir. I, um"—she paused, grinning sheepishly at him as she played with the ends of her hair—"I wasn't exactly looking at where I was going."

At first, it seemed as if he ignored her as he turned on his heel—but he didn't walk away. "Your Nutella jar…"

Blink, blink. "Excuse me?"

He looked over his shoulder at her with a familiar stoic expression. "There's a crack in it, miss."

And sure enough, there was. The rosette had to stifle a sigh. "Great," she muttered, taking the now oozing Nutella jar out of her basket. She looked around the aisle, trying to find a good place to put a broken Nutella jar… and only able to find an empty place at a very high shelf. Tippy-toeing, she held onto a lower shelf for support—

—and nearly died from the agony that the scar on her back gave her when she stretched her arm up. In reflex, she jerked her hand back down, forgetting that the jar was in her hand.

A quick hand caught it in mid-fall and placed it on another shelf. "Would you mind me escorting you to find another jar?" asked the man. "After all, you are in no condition to be shopping."

The rosette shot him a glare. "How would you know?"

He looked at her squarely. "The way you flinched in pain obviously meant that there is some sort of scar tissue on your back that is possibly the result of a severe type of burn. Your wince was the result of the stretching of unhealed scar tissue that formed most likely a few days earlier."

Bingo.

Sakura's eyes widened. "Wow. That was…" She searched for some words. "…right on the spot."

That was when he smirked—and said the one thing that made the gears in Sakura's head _click!_: "Hn." Taking her hand , he dragged her to the jar aisle and plucked out a nice, sturdy Nutella jar off the top shelf, handing it to her. "I don't know how you were able to manage getting a jar off the top shelf like that in your condition."

The rosette laughed sheepishly. "Well, I didn't actually. It almost fell on me." Another laugh. "It was like the jars were falling from the—eh, sir?" She looked at him when he didn't reply, following his gaze only to find a familiar brunette briskly walk away. '_Reina_…' Of course… it wasn't like Nutella jars fell from the top shelf like rain. Only she would go so far as to do something so extreme… not to mention—

"Did that girl cause your scar?"

Sakura shot back into reality when she heard his question, wondering if the man next to her was reading her thoughts. (**A/N:** He can't really, I just felt like doing that because I like picking at Mr. Edward Cullen XD) "Actually, I have a feeling that one of her accomplices did."

The handsome man raised an eyebrow at her. "Accomplice?" He followed her to the checkout line, ignoring the eager stares of other female shoppers. "What exactly do you mean?"

Sakura gave him a dry laugh. "Well, my boyfriend's really attractive—"

"—and she happens to be one of his fangirls?" guessed the raven-haired man, watching her take out her wallet and eyeing the ID. '_Haruno Sakura…_' _Click_.

This time, a genuine laugh came from her as she smiled up at him. "Another point for Mr. Detective." She looked at him awhile. "Actually, he looks a lot like you, sir."

_Click_. The man turned to her and gave her an ambiguous smile. "Then I'm guessing that's a wonderful compliment you just gave me."

Wait. _What_? Oh, no. Sakura held up her hands defensively, waving them around and struggling to keep the blush on her face at bay. "N-No, I didn't mean it like that!" She held her face in her hands. "I'm so sorry, mister…"

Another ambiguous smile. "You say that like I'm an old man." Before Sakura burst into another fit of embarrassment, he went on, looked up at the sky, and almost seemed to drawl lazily, "Seems like it's about to rain."

_That_ mere statement shook Sakura out of her embarrassment almost immediately. "Shit…" she muttered, looking at her bag of groceries and thinking about what would become of her poor iPod in the rain on the long, dreadful walk home.

"Miss?"

She found herself looking right in the eyes of the mysterious man. "Ah, I'm sorry! Please excuse my language…"

"Is there something wrong?" He shifted his weight.

Sakura shifted the brown bag to her other hand. "Actually, there is…" She bit her lip. "I walked here from my house—you know, to get some exercise—and I didn't know it was going to rain…"

The raven-haired man, without letting her finish her sentence, plucked the bag of groceries out of her hand and walked toward the parking lot, leaving her to gawk at him. Realizing that she wasn't following him, he looked over his shoulder. "I'll drive you to your house."

Her face brightened immediately. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

He nodded.

"Thank you very much!" Jogging over to him, she matched his pace as he led her to his car, put in her groceries next to her legs, and pulled out of the parking lot.

The drive was nearly silent—except for the music that blasted out of Sakura's headphones.

_**Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend!**_

_**No way, no way, think you need a new one!**_

_**Hey, hey, you, you, I can be your girlfriend!**_

_**No way, no wa-a-ay!**_

The young man stifled a chuckle, shaking his head at the music that came out of her ears. "You might want to turn that down, miss," he said, plucking one of them out so that she could hear for once in her life. "You wouldn't want to ruin your ears." At a red light, he plucked the iPod out of her hand and turned the volume down for her.

…like another person did some months ago when they met again for the first time in so many years.

She laughed. "Oh, sorry." Turning down the music a little, she turned to look out the window—then, with a curiosity blooming, turned back to gaze at the mysterious man's face. '_He does look like Sasuke…_' Her eyes widened. '_Wait a minute… it can't really be—?'_

"We're here." He put his car into parking mode and stepped out of the car to help the rosette on the other side out.

"Wait a minute—" Her sentence was cut short when she saw Sasuke's house and a revelation hit her. '_It _is—'

"Come along. We wouldn't want to keep Sasuke waiting…" He held out a polite hand toward her. "…ne, Sakura?"

She stared at his hand. Then back at him. "I had a feeling it was you… Itachi-san."

The Uchiha smirk appeared on his face as he put his hand down. "Still as sharp as ever, I see."

"Not as sharp as you apparently." This time, she was the one who gave _him_ the ambiguous smile. "Why did you come back?"

For a moment, it looked as if he was actually considering answering her question, but then, after a moment's calculation he waved her away in that stoic Uchiha way that only he and Sasuke knew. "Hn." Another ambiguous smile. "Business. That's all." Walking to the driver's seat of his car, he held up a hand in goodbye. "I'll come back another time—"

"No, wait, Itachi-san."

Smirk. "Yes?"

"I don't mind if you come in. Sasuke's not home at the moment, but you can stay here a while until he gets back." An uncomfortable pause passed between them. "After all, it's still your house, right?"

The smirk that once claimed his face disappeared. "It would be improper for me to stay home while my brother's partner is in the same residence."

For the second time that day, Sakura, once frozen, jumped to life from the misunderstanding that passed between them. "Ah, no, that's not it, Itachi-san! I meant that you can stay for the moment to—while I—ugh…" Stupid Uchihas and their freakin' messed up brains and their—

"Hn." The older Uchiha closed his car door and walked toward the house. "No need to get flustered, Sakura. I was simply toying with you."

Inner Sakura's vein twitched. _**'Why, that bastard… he's just like his brother.'**_

"But if you're heading off to visit him at work, take my car."

"Eh?"

Another ambiguous smile. "You're a terrible liar, Sakura." He looked toward the grand mansion that stood with just as much elegance as he. "I should scold my little brother for not driving you to the market himself."

The rosette flushed. '_This guy…_' she thought as she watched his stare at the estate turn toward the sky, '_…is a fucking genius._'

And he was. Since the day he learned to talk, he was able to use logic to solve all of his problems—or so it seemed like he did anyway. From a simple piece of information, he could come to all sorts of conclusions—and this afternoon was a great example.

Itachi smirked at his accomplishment, realizing the thoughts running through Sakura's head. The moment Itachi had seen her, he knew right away—but of course, anyone would, considering how many people in the entire _world_ have pink hair. But, carrying on… he assumed, with the enormous chances against it happening, that if Sakura was here, then there was a chance that Sasuke was somewhere close by—and where else would close by be if it weren't the Uchiha mansion itself? By that time however, Sasuke should have been working at Madara's, running about a good six- to seven- to eight-hour work days. All he had to do was confirm all of this information by seeing if it was really her—checking out her ID card at the check-out line—and to find out of Sasuke was connected to her in some way. The only thing he didn't anticipate was the relationship between the two. He had to smirk. '_There are only so many things that a man can anticipate._'

"I have to say that was really impressive, Itachi-san." She took a step forward. "I'll hear you out. But I can't say that Sasuke will be happy to have you back."

He stared at her, his face holding nothing at all. The trick of the trade was to never lose face. "Come, have more faith in me," he monotoned, his eyes starting to obtain a little more red in them. "You wouldn't think that I didn't anticipate _that_."

"That's not the point. Why are you _really_ here?"

Smirk. "I'm disappointed that you haven't realized it sooner." Turning his back to her, he flung his keys behind his head, managing to have her catch them. "You'll find out soon enough, Sakura. I know you will." He opened the door. Stepped inside. Didn't look back. "I'll be waiting."

When the door clicked shut, Sakura, after staring a moment at the wood and, without another moment's thought, slowly trudged to the driver's seat of the car, got in, and pealed out of the driveway just as the rain began to pour.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke sighed and scratched at his spiky black hair, gazing upon the piles of completed documents lying in neat stacks on his desk. He listened to the pattering rain on the thin window panes to his right.` "Time to head home early," he murmured, taking his briefcase and overcoat before reaching the elevator doors right at the moment that they opened. "Hn." Great luck he had. Smirk. Oh, how he couldn't wait to get home—the place where Sakura was waiting for him with all her groceries done and food on the table…

Another smirk crossed his face as the elevator ding-ed. Pushing the glass doors aside, he ran toward his car to try and avoid the rain, jumped in, and pulled out of the parking lot, not noticing another car take his spot right after he drove out of the parking lot.

**-xxx-**

Sakura slammed the car door and locked it with a _beep!_, holding the precious jar of Nutella in her hands as she dashed toward the glass doors, hoping that Sasuke was still in his office. He needed to know, he needed to hear the news that his brother, the one that basically ran off without a word, was indeed back—and for God-knows-why. "Why…" she murmured, slowing down to soak in the rain on the sidewalk a bit, clutching at the jar. "Why would he do this…?" Her eyes seemed to blur. The tears seemed to have come down so suddenly, even she thought that the rain had streamed her eyes. Wiping them away, she managed to choke to herself, "This is ridiculous… this is nothing to cry about."

Exactly… nothing to cry about except for the fact that Itachi was now back, able to run Sasuke out of his job, take his place and never even think one bit of it. And then? What would become of Sasuke, the man who worked so hard his entire life, practically begging for someone to find him behind the eclipse of his brother?

Sakura laughed at her excessive thinking and wiped away her sympathetic tears, coming into the safe, warm haven of the lobby. "This is so stupid… I should know better," she told herself as she asked the lobbyist where Sasuke's office was and managed to find her way to the elevator where she was soon alone with her thoughts.

'_Itachi would never do something like that… there's got to be another reason… right?_'

_Ding!_ "_15__th__ floor,_" sounded the monitor.

She stepped out and walked down the hall, all the while trying to shake off that final thought that resonated in her mind like the elevator's _ding_.

At the end of the hall, a large door without a sign stood. "This must be it." Cracking the door open, she stepped in—and immediately spotted a large swivel chair that had a head of black spiky hair protruding just barely over the back of the leather chair, muttering something into what looked like a phone at his ear. At the sound of the creaking door, the chair swiveled around. "Ah, Sasuke-kun—" She stopped—and stared.

'_That's not… Sasuke-kun…_'

The man in the large chair scratched his spiky black locks, age and slight annoyance at being interrupted clear on his face. He looked around middle-aged, slightly visible bags already beginning to form under glowing brown—almost _red_—eyes. Despite his age, he still looked as handsome and fresh as Itachi and Sasuke.

(Sakura curses at their ageless good look gene.)

As if some kind of button was pressed, the starch-pressed business man Sakura had the impression of immediately turned… well, _weird_.

"Oh, hello, my dear!" he stated cheerfully, waving a hand at her and leaning his chin on one hand. "How may Oji-san help you today?"

Sakura blanched. '_What the hell?_' Just moments ago, this handsome, seemingly-airbrushed, professional businessman sat at this desk—now some kind of weird middle-aged guy who still thought he was a prepubescent middle-schooler was greeting her with a princess wave. _WHHHHHHHAAAAT?_ That was it… there was definitely some kind of behavior syndrome going on with the Uchiha family.

"Umm…"

"What a pretty hair color you have, my dear!" He gestured for her to sit at the available seats in front of him. "What brings you to Oji-san's office? Ooh, is that Nutella?" The older man grabbed at the jar, opened it, and stuck his pinky finger in to scoop up a little bit of chocolate-y goodness and stick it in his mouth.

"Uh, do you happen to be Uchiha Madara-san? The, uh, head of the company?" she asked, sweatdropping at the oddity before her.

At the mention of his name, the prepubescent middle-schooler seemed to disappear, the businessman taking his place. "Not the head of the company, the CEO; and yes, I am, my dear." His playful tone, like his middle school-ish attitude, was replaced with a silkier, more charismatic voice. "Is there something you need of me?"

Seeing his change, Sakura, a little intimidated now, sat up a little straighter. "W-well, I was just trying to find your nephew—"

"—for what purpose, may I ask?" The charisma in his voice seemed almost icy to the point where it made her shiver. There was no mistaking it; this man was a _true_ Uchiha.

She gulped. "I wanted to give him something to eat, seeing how he left this morning without eating anything for breakfast…"

The middle-aged Uchiha's eyebrows raised slightly. "I see…" A frown crossed his face as he looked at the Nutella jar. "Surely you're mistaken; my nephew has never been one for sweets, miss, uh—?"

"Haruno Sakura," she answered smoothly, hoping to take a little bit of intensity off the current situation.

"Ah, yes—Haruno-san." He gave her a stiff smile, his eyes crinkling slightly. "I do appreciate you coming by to greet my nephew, but he just left right before you did"—he didn't seem to notice Sakura's crestfallen face—"and, eh, did you say _breakfast_?"

'_Breakfast?_' What the hell was so important about that? Praying to God that he wasn't reverting back to his prepubescent self, she slowly said, "Um… yes. I think so?"

"You're _living _with my _nephew_?" The tone of voice seemed to be in absolute awe, as if the pink-haired girl had done an accomplishment.

Sakura laughed. "Well, yes. It's a long story, actually, Uchiha-san." She smiled at him. "I'd rather not get into it."

For the second time that day, the girl was hit with a _déjà_ _vu_ moment when she saw the older Uchiha smirk and _hn_. "So he's finally got himself a girl." A nod. "Well done. Oh, and Haruno-san, since you're my nephew's dear, would you mind not calling me 'Uchiha-san?'" Another hint of his prepubescent side showed. "It makes me feel really old!" He snapped his fingers. "I know! You can call me 'Oji-san' like Sasuke does! Hooray!" After a moment's, uh, _celebration_, Madara placed a finger at his lips. "Hmm… say, Haruno-san—or should I call you Sakura-chan?—how come you don't know what Sasuke likes and doesn't like?"

The pink-haired girl inched back in her seat from the intense stare on Madara's face. "Ehh? W-What do you mean?"

"A good girlfriend would know her boyfriend's favorite things, ne, Sakura-chan?"

She glanced at the Nutella jar. "Oh, you mean this." Sakura forced a laugh. "Actually, it's kind of a funny story…" Her eyes smiled with her lips. "It was in psychology class where we had to do this demonstration—Pavlov's classical conditioning."

The older Uchiha leaned forward. "Ooh." Blink, blink. "What's that?"

"Classical conditioning is where you condition a person into doing a certain behavior by either punishing or rewarding their behavior. Like, our demonstration that we had to do." She blushed as she retold their little chocolate kiss episode to Uncle Madara and in the process, explained classical conditioning further. (**A/N:** The little psychology episode is Ch. 4: i"Love" Psychology, in case you need a memory jogger.)

The man listened intently, eyes seeming to calculate something far beyond Sakura's understanding. Then, as she finished, he gave a face-crinkling, stiff smile and—strange as it seemed—_giggled_. "How charming!" he exclaimed, clapping in enthusiasm before letting his hands relax and resting his chin on a hand. "Very interesting, Pavlov's classical conditioning… Say, Sakura-chan, would you like to come work for me?"

She nearly choked on her spit. "Pardon?"

"I want you to come work for me." All informality left his voice, leaving him with his stoically icy tone that could possibly re-freeze over the unknown parts of Antarctica. Seeing her stunned into silence, Madara, with a quiet, dangerous elegance, stood up, and started to pace, wringing his hands behind his back. "You see, my dear, our company is flourishing in all sorts of areas: world-wide trade, marketing, economics, environmental science—all except for our health and medical parts." He stopped at the towering window that overlooked an ocean of buildings and turned to look at her with eyes that shone like rubies. "_That_ is where I need _you_, dear."

'_He's planning something,_' she thought unconsciously, her female intuition tugging at something in her gut. "Oh, really?" she inquired almost curiously. "I don't know, Uchiha-san—"

He waved off the formality. "Please, Sakura," he said with a stiff smile, "You're practically part of my family now—Oji-san. Say it with me—_Oji-san_!"

"Oji-san," she repeated before she moved on. "But are you sure? I mean, I've only been in medical school for about four months—"

"Oh, absolutely, positively, my dear!" Another stiff smile. "You'll do a fine job, I promise you."

Sakura stared at him. Held the Nutella jar close as she bit her lip. "I'll think about it…"

"Fabulous! Come back when you have an answer. Now then," he said, walking briskly toward his desk and picking up the Nutella jar, holding it close to his face before saying, "are you sure you don't want me to have this? Sasuke can always get another one, ne?"

She laughed. "Gomenasai, Oji-san. Maybe I'll get one as a gift for you next time, okay?" Already at the door, she was about to slip out until she looked over her shoulder and gave the older Uchiha a genuine smile. "It was very nice to meet you by the way, Oji-san. Please have a very good evening!"

"Okay then, you too, Sakura-chan~!" He kept waving her off until exactly thirty seconds after the doorknob _click!_-ed and her footsteps were heard no more. Madara let his hand fall limply to his side. The stiff smile that he had on that entire evening morphed into a cruel smirk as he paced back to the gigantic window, watching as the girl's car pealed out of the parking lot and into the night. "Hn. That girl…" he murmured, the smirk threatening to tug wider on his lips, "…will be of much use to me in regards to Sasuke. Seems ditzy—almost stupid." He walked away from the window, out of the moonlight and into the darker part of the room where his eyes seemed to glow bright, demonic red. "Absolutely _perfect_."

…

Sakura sighed as she turned left on the dark highway. "That was one weird man…" she murmured, thinking back to Madara's strange character changes. One moment, he was the starched, scary businessman that he seemed, the other, a weirdo middle-schooler. Another sigh slipped past her lips. "Too bad Sasuke-kun went home right before I did…"

Wait_. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!_—Sasuke went home _early_?

"Oh, no," she said, pressing down a little harder on the acceleration, "Oh, God, no." Itachi was home—she wasn't there—and Sasuke…

Judging by the amount of time Madara had killed with her and the amount of time it took her to drive all the way up there, it'd take her a while to drive back—and she knew she had to get home _fast_. Thank God no one was around when she floored it, speeding all the way home.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke's anticipation almost seemed to soar when he saw the lights in the kitchen turned on as he drove up the driveway and into his garage, getting out and locking the car. "I'm home," he said, trying to hide his excitement as he headed to the kitchen, expecting a beautiful pink-haired girl to come running into his arms and welcoming him home…

...only to find a familiar man who looked like the one person he thought he would never see again. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the semi-obsidian, semi-auburn eyes turn at him, and all at once, his thoughts hit him, one blow at a time—_he_ was here, back from who-knows-where… back to take his spot at the company, to take everything away from him like he did when they were little. _He was here to take them all away._

"Welcome home, Sasuke," said the older Uchiha, holding a nice warm cup of tea and offering a stoic face. He gestured at another tea cup in front of him. "Here, sit down and—"

"Why are you here?" he asked tonelessly, his eyes narrowing as he struggled to control himself. "Where is she? What did you do to her?"

Itachi held up his hands. "Sasuke, I won't be able to answer all of those questions until you're able to calm down and speak to me like—"

"I don't care!" Sasuke shouted, walking over to his brother and grabbing him by the collar. "_Where is she?_ _What did you do to her? How did you get in?_"

He smirked at his younger brother's paranoia as he uncurled Sasuke's fists from his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles. "I did nothing to her at all. In fact," he said, gesturing to the emptiness of the mansion, "she let me in of her own free will." Another smirk crossed his face as he took in his brother's disbelief. "I let her borrow my car so that she could visit you. But, you're here"—the smirk on his face faded away—"aren't you?"

Sasuke's fists, with nothing to hold on to, tightened, his knuckles turning white. "You planned this," he said, gritting his teeth. "Didn't you?"

Itachi simply stared. "Is it a crime that I wanted to visit the younger brother that I hadn't been able to see in years?"

At his words, Sasuke loosened his fists—let go of the conversation a moment and took a step back, placing the emotionless mask back on as he stared with his brother with hateful eyes. "Then you shouldn't have left."

Itachi's emotionless barrier slipped a little, and Sasuke could see almost everything in that one second—regret, anger, and pure, pure sadness, and then, when the mask was back on, absolutely nothing. Sasuke held his brother's stare, ready to kick the man out of his house—until he heard the garage door open with a bang.

"Sasuke-kun? Itachi-san?" cried a voice.

They heard the voice—and Sasuke left everything, all of his thoughts revolving around that pink-haired girl as he dashed down the hall and saw her standing there by the doorway, a Nutella jar in hand and her hair messed up from running up the driveway—the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. "Sakura," he said, approaching her slowly, step by step so that at the last step, he towered over her, threatening to overtake her.

Seeing the kitchen lights turned on, Sakura put a hand over her mouth when she saw the older Uchiha standing by the kitchen table. '_I was too late…_'

"Ah, Sakura, it's nice to see that you're back," greeted Itachi from the kitchen with a stiff smile as he walked into the hall toward her.

She was about to return a small smile and a nod, but Sasuke, upon seeing his brother approach her, immediately put a hand around her waist protectively. "Sasuke-kun!" Sakura protested when she felt herself be pressed up against his side. "Stop—"

"Leave now, Itachi," Sasuke said icily.

"Sasuke-kun…" Sakura said softly, looking up at him with almost innocent green eyes. "Please, hear him out—"

"There's nothing to listen to," was his brusque reply.

Itachi gave a small smirk. "Leave, huh?" He shuffled his feet. "Like the way I did years ago, you mean?" At his brother's wince, he knew that he had hit a sore spot.

"Might as well," Sasuke muttered bitterly as he struggled to hold his ground.

Another smirk. "Fine. I'll just take my keys back then, Sakura," he said, gesturing toward the rosette with an out-held hand.

Sakura almost wanted to shake her head. '_No… this wasn't how it was supposed to be…_' God, she should have known. She should have known that Sasuke would do something like this, would shun his brother away without hearing a single word—words that Sakura wanted to hear in order to have this entire mess cleared up. But now, everything had gone horribly, horribly wrong. But… seeing how it would only make everything worse, Sakura forced a small smile and held out the keys. Any sane person would have expected this man to just simply take the keys and walk out of the house without another word. At least, that was what Sakura thought until she felt him tug not the keys, but her _hand_, pulling her out of Sasuke's grip and right up into his chest.

'_W—What?_' was the only thought on her mind until she felt his lips move toward her ear and heard him whisper a soft, barely audible sentence. Her eyes grew wide and stayed that way even after he released her, walked out into the cold night with his keys jingling and left the couple alone to stare after him emptily as he got into his car and drove away into the night.

The entire time, Sasuke couldn't move. What in the world was _that_? So many thoughts ran through his head at one: why did he do that? What was wrong? _What did he say to her that caused her to seem so empty_?

Sakura couldn't look at Sasuke, not while she made spaghetti for dinner, not while they ate, and not while she washed the dishes and felt a stare burn into her back like her scar. It wasn't until after dinner that the silence was about to be broken.

She was finally done with the dishes, looking at them shine from inside the cabinet. "Another day's done and gone," she said, putting her hands up in the air and stretching—and feeling a terrible shock of pain run up and down her back. Sakura clutched at the back of her shirt and held in a scream of pain; only a gasp made it out of her mouth. "Fuck…"

"Sakura!" Sasuke was already on his feet, dashing toward her and grabbing at the blood-stained shirt. "Shit," he cursed, seeing the scar. God, it was terrible—the scarred flesh had been stretched so much—probably an aftermath from the day at the market and Sakura's stretching combined—that it split open in the middle, revealing the new, pink flesh that peeked behind the tear of skin. He floundered about the kitchen, managing to find some bandages and antibiotics. Sasuke lifted up the shirt again, slowly wrapping the gauze around her center as to not bother the broken flesh.

A cry of agony ripped from her throat as the tears fell down her cheeks while she leaned against the table. "Sa—Sasuke-kun…" she managed to croak out of the pain. "It hurts…"

He hurriedly finished the wrap and pulled her into his arms, trying to get her to calm down. "It's fine," he murmured, gently caressing her sensitive back as he pressed his lips against her hair. "It's okay; you're fine now." He sat down, holding her to him as he continued to rub her back in soothing circles, careful not to irritate any other part of her as he hushed her. It was so odd; before, he wouldn't have been able to do this, not to anyone, never to be able to hold, to hush, to kiss—never until he met this beautiful pink-haired angel. "Sakura, you need to stop crying…" Another kiss to the forehead. "Please."

But she didn't. She couldn't. She wasn't crying from the pain of her back anymore. It was all from the entire day's events, the stress was built up, and the dam had finally broken. It hurt so much; to know that Sasuke's hard work had the potential to be taken away in an instant; to know that his uncle was a wacko freak; and to know that, perhaps, everything that she knew could have possibly been a lie, that Sasuke lived his entire life a lie.

Because the words that Itachi had told her were these:

"_I wasn't the one who left._"

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:** WHOO! Sorry I didn't update. :D Those of you who are still following the Naruto manga, didn't you love how I made Madara incorporate some bit of Tobi? ^_^ It's so fun to read character switchings. (laughs) So hard to write, though. So… everyone think they know what's going to happen with Sakura's little situation here? :D Go ahead, take a guess—but guess wisely~. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews by the way. :) You make me a very happy gal.

.


	15. iFind Out The Truth: Part 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note: **Okay, I've decided that, after reading one of Anton Chekhov's works (who is, by the way, A KILLER WRITER AND PLAYWRITER AND THE MOST RANDOMEST, AWESOMEST RUSSIAN WRITER EVER) and receiving my first flame of this entire story, I'm going to try and update a chapter every one or two weeks. 0_0 Tough goal, but I'm going to try it. Hopefully my parents won't butt in to ruin my plans and delay them… :D Anyways, please enjoy. ^_^ Romance will be scarce in this chapter, due to the enormous amount of time skip in this chapter; please don't kill me during this drama time period, okay? Love you all, my wonderful reviewers. :) Thanks for all the support.

ESPECIALLY FROM YOU, **ERIN** and **LAELIA**, MY DEARS! :D Your review, Erin, definitely cheered me up. :) and Laelia, you inspire me so much, this chapter and my new cruise ship story shall be dedicated to you.

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 15**

**iFind Out the Truth (Part 1)**

**-xxx-**

It was the morning that began in wet tears the flung from the sky, as if it were already foreshadowing the day's events, plowing the master bedroom window with icy water and the occasional striking of ginormous hail. Sakura awoke on soft, warm sheets with a tremendous pain on her back and a serious sense of déjà vu. Blinking a couple of times, she turned her head to find a certain raven-haired man still fast asleep with a long-fingered hand by his cheek. '_What happened last night?_' she thought as she stared at her boyfriend's angelic face, admiring how innocent he looked while he slept away.

The broken trail of memories hit her:

…

_Sasuke hurriedly finished wrapping the bandages around her torso and pulled her into his arms, his lips in her hair as he rubbed careful, soothing circles into her back."It's fine," he murmured, "It's okay; you're fine now. Sakura, you have to stop crying—please." _

_She didn't hear anything after that, thinking of the entire day's stress and feeling the agonizing burn return to her back and hearing Itachi's last words to her:_

"I wasn't the one who left."

…

After that, Sakura could vaguely remember her being carried up into his room, tucked in by two warm, strong arms, and hearing his voice whisper her name before she drifted off to sleep and experienced one of the most dreadful dreams of all time…

Another reason why associating with Uchihas may be psychologically and emotionally life-threatening. Carrying on….

All while she was sleeping, she was imaging all the possibilities of why Itachi said that, why Madara acted so weird, and why Sasuke seemed to absolutely despise his brother despite the fact that it seemed like Itachi meant no harm. I mean, if he did, he probably would have done something to Sakura while Sasuke was away, wouldn't he?

She hugged the sheets tighter around her, burying her head deeper into the pillows. It was so frightening, seeing everyone as they seemed to be—Itachi with his ambiguity, Madara with his seemingly innocent character changes, and Sasuke with seemingly well-suited ill-will toward his brother—felt _unreal_ because it was what they _seemed_ to be. For all she knew, everything that she knew up till now was a complete, utter lie. She _knew_ that Itachi wanted something for being back here, _knew_ that Madara wanted something by giving her a job, and she definitely knew that Sasuke knew something (or at least had some part of the story) that she wasn't aware of.

Her fists clenched in the sheets as resolution seeped into her. '_I'll have to figure this one out all on my own…'_ The only thing to consider, first of all, was _how_.

Just as she started wracking her brain in the works of making a plan and slowly inched out of bed, Sasuke began to stir, his eyes still clenched tight in a dream. She froze. She couldn't afford to have him wake up now of all times, not when she was close to hatching a plan. '_Please don't let him wake up yet… please don't._'

But, of course, the solid chocolate gods still smite-d her for converting and decided to toss a chocolate bar right into Sasuke's face to wake him up and piss the pink-haired girl off while they snickered at their mischief. Well, that didn't exactly happen as dramatically as it sounded, but Sasuke did wake. Feeling his cherry blossom slipping out of bed, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back in, watching with deep, onyx eyes as she tumbled back into bed. "Where did you think you were going?" he asked as he stared at her hard.

Sakura forced a laugh, hoping that it sounded believable enough. "Oh, well, I wanted to head on out and jog over to the university to get my car so that I could get it home." _Nice save_. She cracked a smile. "I _really_ don't want to have strangers driving me home anymore."

His grip tightened on her a moment, and then, as quickly as he had pulled her into bed a few moments ago, he dropped her hand. "Itachi wasn't a stranger." His voice was clipped, detached from the world and icy. "You knew that."

"Well, I know, Sasuke-kun, I was just—"

"Why did you let him in?" he asked again in that chilling tone.

She felt as if she were going through a third-degree investigation as she stared up at his hard, cold eyes with her own green ones. "Sasuke-kun, you have to understand—"

"What is there to understand?" he answered a little harsher than before as he sat up, sheets covering his lower half. "Itachi _left_, and now he's back." He turned to look at her, lying on the bed. "I don't want you to see him."

Sakura's mouth went dry. "Wha—what?" In an instant, she shot up from the bed and jumped out, too quickly for Sasuke to comprehend that she had actually gotten out; still, she faced him head on. "Sasuke-kun, there are so many things that are wrong with what you just said." She snatched her hand away when he tried to reach for her. "No, stop! I want you to listen a sec. What is it with you and Itachi? Okay, so he left—shouldn't you be happy that he's back? That he's here _now_ instead of somewhere that you _don't _know?"

The raven-haired man shifted his gaze and turned his head, letting the rosette see only the back of his head. He _hn_-ed. "You don't understand anything."

At that point, it seemed like her mouth couldn't get any drier; she swallowed. "Yeah," she said, giving a small laugh at her foolishness, "Yeah, you're right—I _don't_ understand right now. Well, about your perspective anyway." Sakura kneeled at the edge of the bed, her elbows on the mattress as she let one hand slowly make its way to his hand and hold one of his long, elegant fingers. She tried to smile when he didn't react. "But I do understand that there's something you're keeping from me—that you don't want me to know yet." She squeezed his hand, stood up, and brushed herself off. "I respect that—and I promise that I won't try to see him." Another smile. "After all, I have you."

Sasuke, who was holding back pent-up anger, felt it dissipate, dispersing and exiting his body almost immediately when he heard her words. He turned to look at her, to take in her innocent, truthful, loving emerald eyes and wonder how the fuck he managed to obtain the heart of such a wonderful girl. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and faced her, staring up at his cherry blossom and, without another moment's hesitation, gathering her up in his arms before he placed a sweet kiss to her lips. How ridiculous—why in the world did he worry so much? '_No one,_' he thought as he continued to kiss her, '_no one will ever take her away from me_.' Not if he could help it. "So tired," he murmured against her lips as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

She pulled away, smiling at him. "Hey, how about I call you in sick today, huh? You don't have classes today, and all I have is universal art class—which, by the way, doesn't have any of your fangirls. 'Sides, Karin and Ino will look after me, and I don't think your oji-san will mind."

He kept holding her to him as he let his lips bury in her hair. "Thank you," he murmured as he reluctantly released her. With a last, longing look, he stared after her as she walked to the restroom before he went back to bed, lulled by the rain pouring down.

**-xxx-**

"Oh, hi, Uchi—ah, Oji-san." She tugged on her wet pink hair, wiping it with the towel around her neck as she clutched the telephone to her ear.

"_Oh, hi! Eh, who is this?_"

"It's Sakura," she said, shifting the phone to her other ear, "You know, Sasuke-kun's girlfriend?"

"_Ah!_" said the voice on the other line, "_Of course, of course! How may Oji-san help Sakura-chan today, my dear?_"

Sakura chuckled. "Well, Sasuke's sick today, so he won't be able to get to work this morning. Is that okay, Oji-san?"

She heard papers rustling in the background. "_Eh? Yeah, that's okay._" He chuckled on the other end. "_I guess Oji-san will have to do all of the paperwork by himself_…"

The rosette felt a twinge of pity, almost wanting to spill the beans about Sasuke not really being sick. "Um… Oji-san, if you want, I can come by later after my classes and help…" She paused before adding, "…if that's okay with you."

"_Really? Oh, goodness, Oji-san would be so happy to have you! Please and thank you, dear!_" Before the phone line _click_-ed, the businessman on the other line let out a giggle. "_Try and hurry please, dearest. Have fun at school, m'kay?_" _Click!_

Sakura listened to the dial tone before she sighed and placed it back onto its holder. "What a weird man…" _Weird_ was perhaps the first word on a gigantic list of adjectives that described him. Then, after that would probably come, _awkward, suspicious_, and definitely _freaky_. But, of course, Sakura's heart had to be full of compassion. Sighing, she placed her pink buds into her ear, clicking a random song, lacing up her shoes and grabbing a hoodie, her car keys (which had been abandoned for so long) and her bag before she bolted out of the door and headed for the university two miles down.

…

Madara chuckled as he clicked his Bluetooth off. "She's already heading back to school… and in the rain no less." Another chuckle elicited from his throat. "Everything seems to be according to plan…" A finger raised up to click the Bluetooth again, dialing a number that seemed to be perfectly memorized by heart.

No answer on the other side. He frowned. "Odd," he murmured, clicking the Bluetooth off for the second time as he paced back to the window; his eyes located an empty parking space and he scowled. "Of course…" Pulling on a jacket, he assumed a brisk walking pace down the stairs, and, once he was outside the building, sprinted toward his shiny black car.

**-xxx-**

_Huff… huff_…

The pinkette stopped to hold her hands on her knees, gasping for air. "Stupid—two—miles!" Even the badminton practice in high school didn't seem to prepare her for running… Despite the rain, Sakura held up a hand to shield her eyes, grinning when she spotted her car just a couple yards away as she swiped her hair back away from her forehead. "Hey, baby!" she said, greeting her car with a smile as if she'd greet a person. She fondly dragged her hand along the beautiful metal. "I'm sorry I haven't been with you lately." Another pat to the car. "But I promise that I'll take you home after class is done, okay?"

The university's bells sounded in the distance, causing some now-late students to dash for their classes. Sakura sighed and gave another pat to her car, blew it a kiss, and jogged away, cursing under her breath on how stupid it was that university seemed to be just like high school and that another _déjà vu_ moment seemed to come together in her mind before it dissipated like the raindrops on the sidewalk.

**-xxx-**

_Tap, tap, tap, tap…_

_ Huff… huff…_

The moment she burst into that art class, she had already felt that someone, somewhere in the room would come out and say—

"Late, Haruno." The voice came from the front of the classroom, clear despite other girls' voices in the background.

Yeah. That.

Sakura almost wanted to groan when she heard that. "Yeah, I know," she muttered, hurrying up to the front of the class and setting her stuff down, "but I was—" She stopped. Wait a sec… that didn't sound like Ms. Arisu*… and when did girls like to talk in _art _class?

The rosette whipped her head up—and wanted to choke on her own spit.

There, standing _right in front of her_ was Itachi, tall and handsome like all the other Uchihas, his eyes still semi-auburn and his posture practically reeking of authority.

"Why're you—wait, what?" Sakura croaked, trying to keep herself from hyperventilating.

One of the girls standing by his side looked at him while she flipped her black hair over her shoulders. "Hatori-san, don't tell me that you actually _know_ this girl," she practically whined, running a hand through her hair as she looked at him all… _vulture-like_.

"Hatori-san?" The name barely made it past the rosette's lips.

"Yes," answered Itachi, giving Sakura a seemingly firm gaze, but, knowing this man for so long, Sakura knew that he was actually saying, _I'm here to talk to you_. He shook the vulture girl off of him with a wave of his arm. "We're starting class today, girls. Please try to not be disruptive." The man cleared his throat. "Today, we are going over a little bit of art history, in order to…" _Blah, blah… blah. Blah, blah, blah_, was the rest that Sakura heard.

She tried to pick up their little eye-conversation. _How did you _get_ here?_ Sakura asked, her emerald orbs practically piercing his skull.

He sent an almost unnoticeable eye message with just a flick of a glimpse before his attention turned back to the front of the class, where he paced back and forth. _What do you think, dearest Sakura?_ _Ms. Arisu _asked_ me to sub for her._

Emerald orbs seemed to intensify their gaze. _Right—because I'm supposed to believe that. You probably just took the opportunity when it came, because no one else could sub for such a large class on such short notice_.

The smirk on the older Uchiha's face said everything. _Clever girl. _Another flickering gaze. _We'll talk after class_.

As if the woman's intuition on every girl seemed to turn on at his smirk and flickering gaze, all the girls in the classroom seemed to glare daggers into her head. _Shit._ On instinct, she dragged her iPod out, holding it in her lap and out of Itachi's seeing range, and clicked on a song that caught her eye.

**Ridiculous**

**By Bowling for Soup**

She tried to relax and breathe while she listened to the piano and guitar intro… and heard the voice of the lead singer.

_**Try not to talk when there's nothing to say**_

_**Kept bottled up, we get carried away**_

_**Then I fall, then I fall down, then we fall down**_

_**You know it makes me feel so ridiculous…**_

Just as she was lulling into the loud, beautiful music, a hand ripped the ear buds from her sockets. "_Ow_," she hissed, rubbing at her ears and glaring up at the raven-haired man with a ginormous art history textbook in his hand.

"Haruno-san, please try and concentrate on the lesson. I'd hate to kick you out like a highschooler."

Insert snickers from random girls in the back of the room.

Great. Just great. Not only did psychology class hate her, but now her universal art class wanted to chew her up just the same. Only for an entirely _different_ Uchiha. Hence, Uchihas ruin lives. Period. With her iPod gone, she slumped in her seat, waiting, waiting, waiting…

_Ding, dong, ding, dong!_

…for not very long.

Moving to pack her notebooks, she immediately sat down when Itachi gave her a hard stare. _Sit_. She sat, ignoring the stares that the other girls were shooting at her in an attempt to get her away from their beloved _Hatori-san_. Ugh. When everyone had left the room, Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and held out her hand. "Can I _please_ have my iPod back now?"

This time he didn't smirk. "Not until you listen to what I have to say."

"Itachi-san—"

"It's urgent, Sakura," he pushed, leaning over her desk with his hands planted firmly and letting her see right into his half-black, half-brown eyes and see the important situation at hand. "We don't have much time, I have to tell you about—"

"Whoo-whee! Man, am I tired! I feel as dead as Anna Karenina on train tracks!" Itachi and Sakura both turned at the voice. The doors had flung open, and in the middle of the two doors stood a very business-looking Madara.

Sakura didn't notice Itachi click his tongue in a curse. "Shit…"

"Oh, Oji-san!" Sakura greeted, standing up from her seat in order to wave at him. "I was just about to head over."

Itachi stared at her, one eyebrow raised. "_Oji-san_?"

Madara waved her comment away and waltzed in, kicking his heels. "No need, Sakura-chan!" he answered, whistling a happy little song. It seemed like only Itachi could catch that devious glint in his red eyes. The elder Uchiha sat down on a desk and swung his legs. "Oji-san decided to come over here and retrieve her himself!" His fist pumped in the air before he formed a peace sign.

Did anyone else expect him to do a flying sidekick to Itachi's face and scream "YOSH"?

Sakura pushed down a wave of laughter and forced herself to speak. "But, Madara-oji, I could have—"

"_Nonsense_, dearest!" Madara cried, throwing his hands up in the air. "Oji-san wanted to come here and pick _you_ up!" He clasped his hands together and gave a sort of schoolgirl gasp as he turned to Itachi. "And what a pleasant surprise—_Itachi_ happened to be here, too!" There was that red glint once more.

Itachi scowled. '"Happened to be here"_… This guy…_' He smoothed his face over with an emotionless mask. "Ah, forgive my rudeness, Oji-san," he said, his voice as silky as an Uchiha could muster. "I was busy speaking to Sakura about some of her artworks lately." As if on cue, he pulled out a massive display, watching Sakura stifle a gasp. It was the painting that she had made without any realization when she had first met Sasuke again. The colors showed as brightly as she could remember. She blushed. Itachi ignored her blatant reaction and continued on, still sorting out plans in his head, since this one was such a bust, calculating Madara's every move.

Madara raised an eyebrow. "So you teach an art class, Itachi?" He rested his chin on his hands, staring at him with seemingly innocent eyes. "That's so wonderful!"

The younger Uchiha gave a dry laugh. "No, Oji-san, not at all. I'm simply substituting for Ms. Arisu—the real teacher of this class."

Sakura joined in, giving a wry laugh of her own and nodding at the businessman. "Hai, Oji-san! I didn't expect Itachi-san either. Heh-heh…" If only she had opened her eyes and seen, _heard_ the wordless conversation that the two Uchihas were having now….

Itachi's eyes penetrated Madara's red orbs. _Excellent move, Madara. I'm impressed_.

The businessman smiled, the red, mocking, devil-like intent not lost in his eyes. _You should be, dear nephew. Now—how about you watch my next move?_ Madara turned his happy gaze to the pinkette. "Oh, Sa-kura-chaaan!" drawled middle school Madara as he waved at said girl. "Say, have you managed to consider my offer yet, dearest?"

"What offer?" Itachi deadpanned, giving Sakura a questioning glance.

Madara giggled like a schoolgirl. "Itachi, you nosy dog, you."

"_What offer_?" His knuckles were ashy white. _Damn you, Madara_.

The businessman wagged a finger at him and _tsk_-ed. "Itachi, you should really learn to control that temper of yours. It's practically seeping all over the floor, dear."

"Madara-oji, it's okay to tell him," Sakura said, crumbling at the way Itachi was all worked up as she reached out to pat his hand.

He yanked it out of her reach as he struggled to sort out all of the possible events that could have happened. "What offer, Madara?" No more formalities. No more seemingly perfect relationships. It was definitely clear that Itachi and Madara were on just as bad terms as Sasuke was with Itachi.

_Definitely clear_. Even enough to make Sakura notice. Before Madara could answer with another poke at Itachi's ego, Sakura butt in. "Oji-san had offered me a job at his company."

The moments that followed were full of deafening silence. Sakura couldn't manage to hear anything coming from Itachi, not even a single breath of air. Madara leaned back on top of the desk behind her, his face completely, utterly devoid of emotion. Only Sakura heard the silence, however—the unsaid words between Itachi and Madara spoke volumes.

_What are you planning, old man? Don't drag her into this mess_.

Madara's gaze flickered, revealing more of the manipulative businessman. _Sasuke has to be kept on a leash somehow, dearest nephew._

The younger Uchiha felt beads of sweat at his forehead. _You fucker._

"Itachi-san? Are you okay?" Sakura looked up at him with worried green eyes.

He nodded, pushing aside the hesitation that he had exhibited at first, but he didn't stop her when she took out her handkerchief and patted his forehead with it.

"You just broke out into a cold sweat so suddenly, Itachi-san," she murmured.

Itachi gently pushed her hand away from his forehead, clearing his throat a little before he looked away from her.

"Oh, so Sakura-chan, there's a ginormous stack of papers on my desk that need filing," Madara chirped, resuming the childish leg swinging. "Would you mind—?"

Sakura freaked. "Omigod, I forgot about that! I'm sorry, Oji-san!" As she packed up her bag and swung it over her shoulder, she was about to head off with the older Uchiha before she remembered something and turned back. "Oh, Itachi-san, what was that you wanted to tell me?"

Itachi stared at her smile before he returned a wry one of his own, raising up a hand to pat her on the head. "Maybe next time."

Another beaming smile crossed her face before she held a tiny hand up in a wave. "Okay then! _Ja ne_!"

"I'll see you in the car, m'kay, dear?" The older Uchiha waved her off, his cheerful façade seeming to brighten the room. The moment the doors clicked shut, the middle schooler was officially gone, the red glint in his eyes swiftly overtaking the brown. The Uchiha smirk seemed to be distorted on his wicked face as he stared down at Itachi and chuckled. "_Next time_," Madara chuckled, covering the wry smile on his face with a calloused hand before he sighed and kicked off the table and began walking toward his older nephew. His Italian leather shoes clicked ominously on the linoleum. "Oh, Itachi, you're so funny." Another chuckle elicited from his throat. "Next time, _next time_. I thought Fugaku taught you to never make promises you couldn't keep."

"I told you not to drag her into this," Itachi deadpanned as he gave his uncle a loathing stare before he shrugged only in the way that a true Uchiha could—with no emotion at all. "But, I guess that it will be your downfall."

The older Uchiha chuckled again as he scratched his spiky black hair. "What, that bubble-gum-haired Valley Girl? That's quite clever, Itachi, threatening me with _that_. But, as I've said, I'm sure you wouldn't _dare_." Another click sounded from his heels. Madara turned to look at his nephew once more. "After all, what good in the world would it be if you threatened _me_?" He sauntered to the double doors and raised a hand in goodbye. "Well then, Itachi, I must be off! I have a Teletubbie waiting for me in the car. _Ja_!"

Itachi watched as the doors closed behind him, listening to the car start up and _vroom!_ out of the parking lot. When all was quiet, the raven-haired man sat down on the desk that Sakura had been sitting at, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small-ish, squareish device with seductive pink headphones dangling from a socket. On the screen were large, bold words that read:

_**iSakura's iPod**_

He caressed the screen, fingering the thumb pad as he looked through her list of songs. "I know that I'll never be able to threaten you." A smirk graced his lips. "But Father also taught us never to underestimate our opponents, Madara," he murmured. "That 'Teletubbie' is going to kick your ass." He zeroed in on a song—and clicked it, placing a pink headphone in his ear as he played with the time sequence, going right into the chorus.

_**When my time comes, forget the wrong that I've done**_

_**Let me leave behind some reasons to be missed**_

_**And don't resent me, and when you're feelin' empty**_

_**Keep me in your memory, leave out all the rest**_

_**Leave out all the rest…**_

**-xxx-**

Sakura finally had gotten to the business building. Madara had managed a tour of the entire place in less than ten minutes, a miracle seeing how the business center was like a tower that led to the heavens. Swear to God, she could practically see Him from where she was sitting. Sakura stretched her aching limbs and rotated them in their sockets. "God, this is a lot of paperwork." She took in the room that Madara had placed her in—Sasuke's room, apparently. What a huge, beastly room—the walls were as high as eighteenth century ballrooms, a large, imposing window glowering over her at her right, rivers of rain cascading down the glass. The desk was even larger than the bed she had at home, and her chair threatened to swallow her whole if she wasn't careful. Stupid Uchiha men with their broad shoulders, tight forms, ageless handsomeness, and overall sexiness.

In the midst of her mental grumbling, she didn't hear the door crack open or turn to see a certain young raven-haired man that she wasn't exactly expecting.

When she heard someone grumbling, she turned in the enormous swiveling chair and nearly fell out of it. "Sasuke-kun?" she said, mid-stamp. "Wha—but I thought you were—this morning, you—"

"Sakura."

"Eh?"

"Stop waving the stamp around. You already have enough ink on your face to fill a pen." Before Sakura could open her mouth and find an oh-so-_delicious_ comeback, Sasuke had already taken out a handkerchief and started wiping at her forehead.

Sakura leaned into his touch for a while, enjoying the silence and the way his hands caressed her face. Then, she spoke. "So, why are you here?"

"Hn. I think that's what I should be asking you," he replied, his thumb stroking her cheek from underneath the hanky.

Sakura held his hand to her face. "You first."

He reached around her and picked up his black iPhone. "I forgot this her, so I ran up here and got it when I was sure that Oji-san wasn't here." The raven-haired man stared at her expectedly until she sighed and gave him a small smile.

"I actually told your Oji-san that I'd be filling in for you when I talked to him on the phone." She ruffled his raven locks with her free hand and laughed. "And so, here I am with this gigantic stack of papers, already starting my career."

"Hn. You never told me about your new career."

She froze. _No, she never did, did she?_ Crapsicles. Sakura felt herself sweatdropping before she forced a _really_ awkward laugh. "Whoops. That slipped out didn't it…"

"What career?" Sasuke had already scooted closer to her, his hand clenching the hard wood of the desk.

Sakura rubbed at her head. "Well, you know how I came home late yesterday? And, um… _he_ was there?"

The events from last night flashed through his head, and he gritted his teeth. "Where were you?"

"See, that's the thing," she hastily replied, fidgeting with her fingers as she averted her gaze, "Itachi let me borrow his car—"

'_So he was telling the truth_…'

"—to visit you because I thought that you were still here, and—"

"—and you met Madara by accident," Sasuke completed for her, musing all sorts of scenarios in his head. He stared at her, watching her eyes glaze over, trying to remember.

"Yeah. I came into the first room down the hall, and I saw his head from over his chair, and I thought it was you." Sakura rummaged through her memories, trying to scavenge them as she racked her brain. "And we talked for a while about Nutella—which by the way, you still haven't had—and then he offered me a job."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Here?"

"No, Sasuke-kun, at the McDonald's downtown because I'm a policeman trying to settle domestic violence charges against the vegetable oil for burning the French fries." She giggled at him when he stared at her blankly. "That was sarcasm, love," she answered his mental questions as she leaned back in the leather chair and smiled up at him. "But yeah… he did."

"As what?"

She shrugged. "Apparently you guys are short on medical expertise."

'_Since when did we have a medical department in the company?_' Sasuke thought-asked, keeping his stoic mask on as he nodded at his girlfriend. "Aa. Did you answer?" At her blank stare, he added, "His offer."

"Oh! Well, I'm going to give him an answer if I manage to finish all of this paperwork in time." She laughed. "I think being a medical expert wouldn't have much paperwork though. So… I might take up his offer." Leaning back up swiftly in her chair, she gave him a soft peck to the cheek before she leaned back and watched as he stood there, stunned for a moment.

He rubbed his cheek with the tips of his fingers. "What was that?"

She gave him another dazzling smile. "I'm just excited, is all."

Smirking at her innocence, Sasuke dropped to a knee as he picked up one of her hands and brushed his lips against each individual knuckle, watching as she stared back at him with those gorgeous eyes that he sang about and dreamed about. "I'll anticipate it as well."

**-xxx-**

Sakura couldn't believe how heavy the stacks of paper were as she dragged herself down the hall, trying not to tip over from the extra weight. She sighed—it was hard enough trying to get Sasuke out of the building without making a sound to disturb Oji-san so that Sasuke's cover wouldn't be blown; now she was lugging a probable ten pounds of paper toward a door down the hall that seemed miles away. Every step seemed like a pounding ache to her arms and a wake-up call for her. '_Careful… steady now…_' She almost cried tears of joy when she reached the large, intimidating double wooden doors of Oji-san's office that were left slightly ajar so that she could see his spiky black head from where she stood. Just as she was about to call out to the old (well, old to _her_) man, words caught in her ears.

"—offer you a position, yeah." A pause hilted in the air before Madara laughed. "Don't doubt me, darling—of course I'll get you the seat you want in exchange for that receptionist position of yours…"

'_He's talking with the _receptionist_?_' Sakura thought, vaguely remember the pretty young lady down in the lobby who had directed her into his office in the first place. '_What's going on…?_'

She snapped out of her reverie when she heard him laugh again, his tone taking a more malevolent tone. "Oh, the pink-haired girl? Don't be jealous of her, darling. She's dense; she never talks to Itachi because she's such a love-sick _dog_ to Sasuke; she's just a simple _pawn_ in my master plan."

_Ploosh!_ Sakura didn't mean to do it; she really didn't, but before she could realize that the papers were slipping from her hands, they slipped to the floor, causing an awful paper-meets-tile floor sound. Her heart pounded in her chest when she saw Madara startle in his leather chair. She took a few steps back—one… two… _three_—and ran as fast as she could, the adrenaline pounding in her veins with every step she took. She didn't look back. Didn't think when she heard footfalls coming after her like a mantra in her head. All she did was _run_. '_Oh, God… oh dear God…_' Her thoughts travelled back to Itachi when he had come at her with that flustered face that she had never seen before.

_"We don't have much time, I have to tell you about—"_

Sakura wiped the tears away from her face. She never let him finish that sentence, did she? But now she knew. It was Madara. Madara, Madara, Madara. Oh, God, that man was a born actor—that middle schooler act, that cute old man act, the friendly smile—all of those were just masks that concealed his true character. In that one statement from behind those doors, she heard everything that she needed to hear to put everything together.

Taking the last bit of adrenaline from her system, she bolted down the final flight of stairs, knowing that if she took the elevator, she would run into _him_. She sprinted through the lobby, already knowing that the receptionist was staring daggers into her head. She didn't care. She'd had four months of having daggers stared into her head by so many girls already because of this family; that didn't matter anymore. As she ran through the rain, she nearly laughed until she cried when she saw her beautiful car—and stopped when she saw Madara, leaning against her trunk.

The Uchiha stood there, hair defying the rain as they stood against the pull of gravity. His dark suit was soaked into his leather shoes, but he didn't seem to mind, seeing how those blood-red eyes (which Sakura had always thought were auburn) seemed to bore into her soul. The remnants of a cruel smirk described his lips as he folded his arms in an act of triumph.

The only sound that was heard between them was the roar of the rain until he spoke. "You thought you won, didn't you, dear?" Even when he was his sinful self, he still went by the endearing names as if to add irony to the situation.

Sakura stood there a while, letting the rain beat against her and letting the screams of the wind burn her ears as a kind of cruel punishment for not knowing sooner. She gritted her teeth. "You're a real dickwad, you know that, Madara?"

Devil's incarnate _tsk_-ed at her. "Now, now, Sakura-chan, it's not polite to talk to your elders with such a tongue like that, now is it?" he said as he reached toward her to pat her on the head.

"Don't you_ dare_ patronize me," she spat, swatting his hand away. "Why are you doing this, huh?"

Madara cocked his head to the side playfully and smiled at her stiffly. "What do you mean, Sakura-chan?"

"I have it all together."

The middle-schooler act seemed to drop right away. His stare turned cold, ironically running with the color of hot blood. He scoffed. And _laughed_. Despite his sinisterness, his laugh drew her in as it bled with the charisma that no middle-schooler could muster. "That's impossible," he managed to say after a side-splitting cackle. The deformed Uchiha smirk slithered across his lips. "No one as _slow_ as you could ever figure anything out."

She tried to keep herself together, oh, how she tried, but the emotion inside her was stirring and at the last comment, she exploded in a fury of messy emotion. "Slow? _Slow?_ Is that what you call me, Madara?" She walked up to him, staring him right in his bleeding eyes with her determined emerald eyes. "If I was slow, would I have been able to know that this company was rightfully _theirs_? That you're just a _selfish_, _self-centered_, _overbearing_ _monster_ who doesn't know anything about family, that all you know about is _manipulation_ and _cruelty_? That you're sending Sasuke off to all of these different schools to stall for this plan of yours? That Itachi was trying to warn me about you this _entire_ _time_?" She didn't let Madara speak when he raised his brows. "You knew that Sasuke would keep me from speaking to Itachi, and that was why you let him make his move. You saw that I was a girl—and that automatically made it, in your eyes, another opportunity to keep your plan perfectly foolproof, keeping me away from Itachi and keeping Sasuke in the dark while you slowly took over the company for yourself." For the first time, Sakura mirrored the Uchiha smirk with her own, one that seemed to define her and brighten her face up despite the severity of the situation. "But the one thing that you didn't anticipate was _me_."

The businessman stared at her, his eyes narrowed down into suspicious slits. "You can't do anything about it."

Sakura almost wanted to laugh at his childishness. She jingled her keys and walked past him without looking back as she had her hand on the car door. "Watch me."

"Is that a threat?" The rain roared in their ears once more as Madara looked on at her for an answer, smirking.

She turned toward him and smiled with those innocent looking emeralds, and said the words he never expected to hear: "Absolutely."

That single word stunned him into silence, making him listen to the howling of the wind and the moaning of the trees that were being whipped around by the rain. No one, _no one_, had ever said that to him. Not Itachi, not Sasuke, not even his own brother. There was only one person who had dared to say the same exact thing…

He watched her as she stepped into her car and started the engine. '_Her window…_' he thought, mindlessly trudging toward the driver's window. With her head turned to look out at the back as she tried to pull out of the parking lot, Madara acted without thinking, jamming his hand through the window and giving her a good, solid hook to the head. The glass cut his hand, but it was worth it when he saw her head lolling back and forth from the good pop he gave her. Reaching in through the broken glass, he turned the engine off with shaky hands, his vision slowly seeping red as he put her keys into his right pocket. A giggle ripped from his throat. "I did it, heh-heh! I did it!" As his laughs died away with the howls of the wind and he made his way to his car, he struggled not to let the tears fall out of his eyes as he remembered the smiling face of a raven-haired beauty with the same determined eyes as the pinkette. '_Mikoto…_'

Stepping into his car, he pressed the engine on and cruised onto the driveway. '_Mikoto…_' Yes. Mikoto. Madara wanted to carve her name into his flesh over and over and over again. She was so beautiful, so intelligent, so _kind_. The smile on his face instantly turned into a frown when images of his older brother seeped into his mind. He ground his teeth, trying to clear the red from his eyes. Fugaku had stolen everything from him—stolen his parents' love, his friends, the family business… and the woman that he loved. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair, _it wasn't fair_. At a red light, Madara pounded his head into the steering wheel, enjoying the aching in his forehead as the memories flooded back to him like a broken record's memory.

"_Don't tell me that he's giving the kids the company."_

"_Stop it, Madara. I'm sorry that it has to be this way. But the company is in Fugaku's hands. My husband will choose to do as he pleases with it."_

Madara felt a twinge in his chest as another memory was dug up from his hippocampus. _"Your husband… _your_ husband is an idiot who doesn't know how to love."_

He felt her cold stare. Saw those hurt eyes once more. _"Why do you want the company to yourself?"_

The car took a turn. _"Because then my brother won't have everything I want and love."_

Madara's cruel smirk slithered across his face. "That's right…" he murmured as he recalled each and every one of his memories. "That's right." _With the company in my hands, Fugaku won't have it anymore. It won't be his—or his posterity's. _

As he struggled to close up the dam that held his memories, the last thing he remembered remembering was the last conversation between him and Mikoto:

"_Wait, Mikoto! Where're you going?"_

Her footfalls sounded down the hall… _tap, tap, tap. "To tell Fugaku!"_

"_Is that a threat?"_

With a final turn, the Uchiha manor was in sight and Madara, quoting a word from his past and present, smirked and said: "'_Absolutely_.'"

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:** Well, that was exciting. :D I watched _Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps_ recently and I fell in love with this one quote where they're talking and then Michael Douglas says something and then Shia LeBoef is like, "Is that a threat?" The answer to that is "Absolutely." XD So yeah. That was the sexiest line EVER.

You got an inside look at Madara's past. :D Sakura's finally found out; now what will happen as next to prevent Sasuke from finding out? ;) You'll love the dramatic twist, dears.

** And please, review, review, review!** Else I'll be like Madara—give you a nice right hook to the face. XD Love you all.


	16. iFind Out The Truth: Part 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note: **So… I know that Sakura's in a bad spot right now and it seems a little confusing, but just bear with me and see this with me till the end. Oh, and the beginning of this chapter is just a little look inside Madara's head and memories. :) Just so you guys won't get confused.

And now to answer some 'anonymous' reviews:

**Erin:** Ha-ha, yeah. ^_^" Well, the romance shall now be scarce for a while for some major drama. You'll have to hold out for a while, okay, m'dear? The drama will soon be over… in about three, two, four-ish chapters? (insert awkward laugh here).

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 16**

**iFind Out the Truth (Part 2)**

**-xxx-**

_Mikoto. _

_ That beautiful raven-haired girl. _

_ Intelligent._

_ Kind._

_ Caring._

_ Beautiful inside and out._

_ And that bastard of a brother just decides to come along and take her from me. _

_ Fugaku had everything—Mother and Father's love, their approval, their praise; intelligence that mine could never match; charisma that everyone who met him admired; the company which was already starting to seep into his hands; and Mikoto. Mikoto, Mikoto, Mikoto. _

_ Why couldn't it have been me?_

Memories, dry and cracked, came back to haunt him.

_I loved her. She loved me. But she also loved _him_…_

Madara sat there in his car, in the driveway of the Uchiha manor, his thoughts swirling around him. He didn't know if he was still alive. Functioning—_working_. All he could do was sit there and remember all the monstrosities he had committed…

—

—

_Fugaku stared at his younger brother from behind his giant desk. It was the same office that Madara had occupied, up until his father decided that Fugaku would be more of a better suit to the company. "What is it, Madara?" Fugaku's voice was cold, practiced, but, in Uchiha standards, surprisingly warm toward his little brother. He stared at Madara's personal belongings, stacked in neat, organized boxes, purposely keeping eye contact from the former owner of the company. _

_ Madara stared at him, his eyes brown and dull, devoid of the same childish light as they used to own before all of his blessings started breaking away. "Fugaku…"_

_ "Hn?"_

_ "Congratulations on inheriting the company, big brother." He lifted his gaze and met his brother's cold, onyx eyes with his brown ones. _

_ Fugaku swiveled his chair around to face the imposing window. "Hn." _

_ "H-Hey! Don't do that, that's rude, nii-san!" _

_ "Hn." He still didn't move._

_ "Fugaku, why the hell do you even _want_ this company? Look at everything that you _have_ for once, you big—"_

_ "Big what, Madara?" He finally swiveled around to face his younger brother. Those cold, cold eyes… "Father always taught us to finish our sentences, otou-san." Swiveled back around. "Besides, what would _you_ do with this company? What use have _you_ for it?" He looked over his shoulder at his little brother, trying not to grit his teeth as he deadpanned his next words. "The company would only decline in your hands."_

_ Silence. Absolute silence. _

_Madara walked toward the large wooden desk. _Clack… clack…_ He slowly put his hands on the smooth wood and stared at the back of the chair. "What _use_ would _I _have for it?"_

_A loud CRACK! resonated throughout the room as Madara's hand came swiftly down on the wooden desk. "What __**use**__? Fugaku, look all around you! You have so much to live for! You have so many things that I already __**don't**__ have! You have Mother and Father's blessings, you have charisma, people __**love **__you for crying out loud—you even have—" He stopped himself. Stopped himself because he didn't want to scream her name for the umpteenth time in his life. _

_But even without saying her name, Fugaku understood. He swiveled around. Slowly… slowly, until he faced his little brother. The emotionless mask that all Uchiha men wore slipped off of his face for only a second, but Madara could see everything: pain, regret, sadness—and then it was gone. Folding his hands and holding them to his face, Fugaku leaned on the desk, ignoring the crack in the middle, and said, "I'm sorry."_

_There should have been so many words at that last statement, so many words by the lines of, "Sorry doesn't cut it," or even a simple "Shut up." But Madara, knowing his place below his brother nodded, took his boxes and slowly trudged to the elevator. _

—

Madara remembered the last time he had seen that beautiful face of hers and the stern one of his brother's—the day that Fugaku had decided to pass his company down to his children. The disfigured Uchiha smirk made its way across his face.

—

_ "Don't tell me that he's giving the company to the kids." Madara trailed around the raven-haired beauty, counting her steps as she walked. One, two, three, four, five, six… stop. She pivoted on her heel to stare at him, her black orbs meeting his brown ones. _

_ "Stop it, Madara. I'm sorry that it has to be this way. But the company is in Fugaku's hands. My husband will choose to do as he pleases with it." She gave him a good, stern stare that he knew she wasn't capable of keeping up. _

_ Madara _hn_-ed and shuffled his feet before he muttered, "Your husband… _your _husband is an idiot who doesn't know how to love."_

_ Almost immediately the stern look that she tried to hold up vanished, her eyes holding hurt and sadness. "Why do you want the company, Madara?" she whispered, staring up at him as he brushed a hand against her cheek like he used to before she chose a different life away from him._

_ It took him a while to answer that, but before he knew it, the answer came to him, just as it did when he had lashed out against his brother. "Because," he murmured back, watching as she stepped out of his reach, "then my brother won't have everything I __**want**__ and __**love**__." _

_ His thoughts swirled around again. '_And everything I want and love is _you_.'

_He watched her carefully, watched the way her hair swung over her shoulders, how the realization set in to her as her eyes widened and her breath quickened. And then, he watched her run. For a moment, he stood there, stunned. Then, he called after her. "Wait, Mikoto!" His feet moved by themselves. "Where're you going?"_

_ She didn't look back, but he could hear her faint voice as she dashed on, ahead of him. "To tell Fugaku!"_

_ That name… Madara sprinted after her, his adrenaline peaking as he exerted his energy, managing to fall behind her in ten large strides and capture her wrist. He tugged her back to him, watching her as she tried desperately to pull away. He narrowed his eyes. "Is that a threat?" He knew that she would never threaten him, would never threaten a _male_ with such small stature of her own. She wasn't as strong as she used to be._

_ But he was wrong. Looking up at him, she did the one thing he never expected her to do. She smiled, her onyx eyes holding a beautiful promise in them, a promise that Madara thought meant that she changed her mind, and would never tell. _

_ He repeated his question again. "Is that a threat, Mikoto?"_

_ Another smile. She tore her hand away from his grip—and ran. The only thing he heard from her was "Absolutely." _

_And absolutely, it was. Mikoto had told her husband everything, about Madara wanting the company, about his envy of Fugaku's family—it was absolutely pitiful. When Fugaku heard, it was unbearable to think about what he would do. Yet, strangely, the only thing Fugaku did about it—was nothing. _

_ "Aren't you going to punish me?" _

_ Fugaku simply stared. "Hn. Ridiculous. Why would I even do that?"_

_ Madara stared at him. "Well—"_

_ "Consider it a warning, Madara, that if you _ever_ come near my children, my company, or my wife, you _will_ face grave consequences." Fugaku's jaw was tight, his black-hole eyes steely and cold. _

_ At that moment, the little heart that Madara had left seemed to shatter. The Uchiha smirk that his brother wore so well seemed to warp on his face, making him seem sinister and dark. "Will I, now, dearest brother Fugaku?" He leaned forward, matching Fugaku's stare with his own twisted one. "Hm? Are you really planning to _threaten_ your only brother, Fugaku?"_

_ No answer. _

_ Madara's smirk curled around his face when he saw his older brother's hands begin to shake. "What's the matter, darling brother? No words to say to your dearest little brother, eh?" He skipped backwards, starting toward the double doors. Madara cocked his head to the side, letting Fugaku see the brokenness in his eyes. "Well brother, we'll be seeing each other soon enough." In a mock salute, he was out. "_Ja_, nii-san!"_

—

Madara remembered that his words rang true soon enough. Of course, that was also the last time that he had ever seen his brother alive. The warped smirk seemed to falter on his face as he recalled the 'accident' that resulted in both Fugaku and Mikoto's death. He remembered smashing his brother's face to the wheel of his car, so hard that Fugaku bled. He remembered whispering sadistic remarks in his ear before he bled to death… and then there was Mikoto. His fists clenched as he remembered his weakness, his inability to do away with the young woman right away, who was still so beautiful and full of life—so much that it still affected him. It wasn't until right up to the very end that he decided that she would die, too.

—

_ He held her down as he strapped her to the seat adjacent to the driver's seat, next to where Fugaku's bloody body sat, the hands still wrapped around the steering wheel as if he had never been bludgeoned to death. _

_Mikoto screamed and cried when she saw him, the tears running down her face as she took in her husband's death. It seemed like the tears were only there to blur out the insanities of realities she was currently facing. She whipped her head around to her brother-in-law, staring at him with wide, tear-filled eyes. "God damn you to hell, Madara!"_

_He finally had the nerve to lift his gaze to her, staring at her with blood-red eyes. When his heart had finally broken, Madara had finally started seeing red, as if his heart had burst, filling his eyes with that fluid of life that he had just drained from his brother. He _tsk_-ed at her. "Now, now, Mikoto, didn't Fugaku teach you to use your tongue wisely, hmm?" The sarcastic smile on his face died when he felt her spit at him._

"_Fuck you, you asshole." She was breathing hard, her hair tousled about. "Don't you _dare_ patronize me." The tears ran down her face again, leaving their malicious trail. "And don't you _dare_ believe that with Fugaku gone—don't you think that I'll ever love you." Her bottom lip trembled. "I would rather die."_

_The red glint in his eyes seemed to scintillate underneath the light of the moon. Another misshapen smirk. "Your wish is my command, dearest." Taking a knife from his pocket, Madara flicked it open… and began to sharpen it on her skin._

—

The screams that ripped from her throat still echoed in his mind—he heard it then, when he had run into the car with his own and left, and even now, Mikoto's screams still haunted him.

"Oh, Mikoto," Madara said as he stared up at the Uchiha manor. "You could have just gone along with me. We would have been such a beautiful couple."

But now, that was impossible—and the only thing that would help him defeat Fugaku now was if he dealt with keeping the other two apart for just a little longer… and then doing away with them, too.

As he locked his car, the older Uchiha walked up the driveway and knocked on the door that he used to know so well. And then, he waited.

**-xxx-**

Everything seemed foggy and blurry when Sakura finally awoke to a pounding headache. She hissed when she felt a welt on the side of her head.

"Man, I was lucky," she muttered to herself as she patted it tenderly. "If he'd hit my left temple, I would have been a goner."

Wait. _Him_—Madara. Oh, God. Oh, God.

Reality hit her when she looked down and saw broken glass lying all over her lap. "Fuck!" When she reached over to grab her keys and ignite the engine—the keys were gone. She stamped her foot. "That bastard! That fucking bastard!" She looked out of her window and stared at the rain. '_I've done it before in the same weather. I can do it again._'

Stepping out of her car, taking her stuff, and shutting the door, Sakura thanked God for letting her have such wonderful feet—and ran for the second time that day.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke had been pacing back and forth, wondering where the hell Sakura was and staring up at the clock when he heard a knock at the door. One sign that something was wrong—Sakura _never_ knocked. When he opened the door and saw Oji-san, that was another sign. He swung it open. "Madara-oji?" He raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

The businessman skipped inside the house. "Why, it's a pleasure to see you too, Sasuke! Sakura told me how sick you were and even volunteered to help me sort the papers you were supposed to do and—"

"Oji-san."

Blink, blink. "Eh?"

"Where is Sakura?"

The businessman blinked again before completely registering the question. He grinned sheepishly and had a hand up to scratch his head. "Ooh, Sakura-chan is still at the building. She's working over-time, the poor thing." He wagged a finger at his nephew. "Be nice to her, you hear?"

To Sasuke's dismay, his uncle started up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Sasuke sighed. "Madara-oji, please be careful. I wouldn't want you to slip."

At the top of the stairs, his uncle turned around and flashed him a peace sign. "Tee-hee!" was the only thing he said before he disappeared up another flight of stairs.

Sighing again, the raven-haired man followed, calmly making his way up the stairs and grimacing at the muddy stains on the once un-marred wood. His eyes followed the mud tracks into a room that only one other person used beside himself. Keeping his temper in check, he threw the door open, ignoring the loud _Slam!_ that elicited from it as he stalked in, his eyes following his uncle's moving figure. "Madara…" He gritted his teeth. "What the hell are you doing?"

Madara touched the soft, silky dark blue sheets. His eyes softened and clouded, making him look distant and far-away. "This is the bed the Mikoto used to sleep in…"

He didn't notice Sasuke flinch.

Sasuke just stood there, frozen. "What?" he manage to say as he continued to watch his uncle stand up and move over to the nightstand with all of Sakura's belongings. Finding the strength to move when his uncle didn't answer, he strode over to him and grabbed him by the collar. "Madara—"

Madara had to stop himself desperately from smirking at Sasuke's tone of voice, one that Itachi used on him a little earlier in the day. He _tsk_-ed. "Now, now, Sasuke—keep control of your temper. It's leaking all over the floor."

"_Don't patronize me, Madara_," he said through gritted teeth. "Mikoto… that was Mother's name. How did you know about her—about this being her room? Do you know what really happened to her, Madara?" No answer. Another slam. "God damn it, _tell me what happened to her!_" By now, Sasuke had pushed his uncle against the nightstand so hard that it tumbled, knocking all of the stuff onto the floor and eliciting a disgusting _Crack!_. Sasuke cursed.

"Uh-oh, Sasuke!" Madara chirped, leaning down to pick up her stuff, "Look at what you did! Sakura-chan's going to be—" He stopped when he saw the words of the papers in his hand and forced himself not to smirk. "Oh, Sasuke… I'm so sorry…"

"About what?" snapped the youngest Uchiha, snatching the papers away from him.

Madara gasped. What a wonderful actor he was. "_Really_, Sasuke? You _don't know_?" He sauntered over to the window, seeing a pink-haired blur come just in time. The smirk threatened to overwhelm him as he turned around. "I guess Sakura didn't tell you."

"Tell me _what_?"

Pointing to the papers, Madara whispered to him, "She hasn't been telling you the _truth_." He watched as Sasuke's eyes widened as he read the first paper. The second paper. Madara sat down on the bed. "If she hasn't been telling you the truth this entire time, why in the world should you trust her anymore, hmm, dear?"

Sasuke felt his knees go weak. He sat down before he could collapse. "She… never told me…" His breaths turned into gasps as he turned to look at Madara with hateful eyes. "You're _wrong_. If she had these papers, why hasn't she gone to these schools before?"

"Maybe she _has_, dear—to check them out."

The glare on Sasuke's face faltered.

Madara egged on. "To survey them and see which campus is greater."

"You're… you're wrong." Sasuke shook his head, still in denial. "She would never do that."

"Oh, Sasuke, dearest—who _wouldn't_ go to Harvard or Tokyo University after they've applied?" Madara let out a giggle. "It's not like she applied to them as _jokes_." Seeing how Sasuke's denial was slowly faltering, he knew that all it would take was another push. "Besides—aren't you upset how she's gotten into the one school that _you_ couldn't get into?" He _hmph_-ed. "The girl gets you in trouble and then applies to the same school the you want to go to afterward. Sounds _fishy_"—Madara smirked when he saw the resolution on Sasuke's face—"doesn't it?"

As if on cue, they heard a knock on the door. '_Perfect,'_ Madara thought as he watched Sasuke go downstairs like a zombie, still holding on to the papers. He watched from the balcony on the top of the stairs as his masterpiece unfolded.

"Sasuke-kun!" breathed a more than relieved Sakura as she took off her wet shoes at the door and stared up at the young man before her. "Thank God, Sasuke-kun, I have something to tell you." She stopped to catch her breath. "It's about—"

"I already know what you're about to say." Sasuke deadpanned, staring down at her with such empty eyes that Sakura seemed taken aback.

"Huh?" Sakura stared back, and then her face brightened. "You do? That's great!"

His emotionless mask nearly fell at her words. '_So she's happy that I know…_'

The bubbly rosette continued to spasm. "Omigod, this is so great, Sas—"

"_Don't call me by that name_."

Sakura froze. What? What was wrong with Sasuke? '_I thought he'd be happy to finally find out about Madara… and about Itachi…_' Her green eyes looked into his eyes and she saw hurt cloud them. "What's wrong, Sasuk—?" A hand clamped over her mouth.

"Stop. Don't say my name," he said lowly, still keeping the eye contact to show her all the turmoil inside of him. He lifted the papers in his hand. "What are these?" His suspicions seemed to click when her eyes widened.

Her eyes, wide and wild, met his. "How did you find those?" she asked, her voice muffled against his hand, but still audible. She ripped his hand away from her mouth. "_How the hell did you find those_?"

Madara stepped in, slowly clapping his hands as he walked down the stairs. "Why, _hello_, Sakura-chan!" he chirped, waving at her with a disgusting smile plastered to his face. "Fancy seeing you here so soon!"

For a moment, she couldn't speak. She just stared at him, her eyes as wide as they could go. "You fucker…" she breathed as she stared at him. "You asshole, you're a real piece of—!" She felt a hand squeeze her chin and twist her gaze to meet Sasuke's gaze.

"Don't speak to Oji-san that way."

"But you're wrong, Sasuke-kun! You have it all—"

He cut her off, re-placing his hand upon her mouth. "Stop—saying—my name."

"I can scream your name however I fucking want to!" she cried, the tears of frustration rolling down her cheeks. "Why the hell are you doing this? You don't even know what the hell is going on around you! You don't understand the half of it!"

"_You_ are the one who doesn't understand."

That sentence stopped her in her tracks. Then, in a mess of fury, she snatched the papers away from him. "What do you want me to say, huh?" she asked, her voice trembling as she shook the papers in his face. "Huh?"

"I want you to tell me why you have those papers."

"I just applied to these colleges because—"

"Because you wanted to piss me off," Sasuke completed for her, knowing that it was the only thing that could have come out of her mouth.

She stared back at him, wondering how dense this young man was. Then, for the second time that day, she burst. "I applied to those colleges _after_ you went away, Sasuke-kun!" Before he could stop her, she steamrolled on. "These were after you _left_! I applied to Harvard as a joke! I applied to Tokyo University, but it never replied back until now! This was all a mess that you should have never _known_ about!"

The only thing they heard for a while was Sakura's intense breathing as she stared up at the only man in her entire life who carried her heart.

"Madara-oji said that you'd say that."

Another moment of speechlessness. "Fuck what Madara has to say!" she shouted, waving her hands. "Madara just wants your company! That's why he's doing this—because he doesn't want you and Itachi to own it together. That's why he's been keeping you two apart, sending you to so many different colleges and making it seem as if Itachi was the one who left, while it really was _you_."

Madara smirked at her, the distorted smirk seeming to be etched on his face. He knew that at this point, Sasuke would have closed all of his senses out, only listening to the one voice in his head that screamed that Sakura was the one who betrayed him—she was in the wrong, and he was in the right. There was really no need to step in at all. But he had to admit that he was a little surprised when he saw Sasuke slam her against the wall. _Hard_. At that moment, he slipped away and out of the door, leaving the two to themselves as he closed the door behind him, the smirk still on his face.

Sakura wriggled under Sasuke's grip. "Hey, come back here!" she shouted after Madara. "_Coward!_" She winced when she felt Sasuke pull her chin to meet her gaze with his.

"Don't you dare turn this situation around on _me_," he growled keeping her arms pinned over her head as he stared down at her, the hurt and pain of acknowledged betrayal practically seeping from his eyes. "I thought that you were different—that you'd never lie to me."

The stream of tears burned at her eyes as she kept his gaze, meeting him head on. "I never wanted to," she croaked. "But what the hell was I supposed to do with these?"

Sasuke's eyes became distant, clouding over with far away thoughts. "You should have burned them," he muttered, his grip on her tightening. "They should have never sent you those."

In that last statement, the realization slowly seeped into her. Her bottom lip trembled. "So that's it, huh?" she murmured. "They should have never sent me them because they were _your_ colleges." She stared up at him. "Huh, Sasuke-kun?"

"Stop it."

"You couldn't stand me being able to get into the one college that you ever wanted to go into, and now you're—"

He banged his fist against the wall, right next to her head. "Just _stop it!_" His breath came in little pants. "You don't understand. You _don't_ understand."

For a while, silence overtook them. Then, Sakura smiled. It was an ironic thing, really, the smile on her face and the tears that seemed to scar her cheeks. She gave him a broken laugh. "Yeah. I know. I never understand when it comes to you, Sasuke-kun." She lifted her gaze to his, letting him take in her sad, sad green eyes. "And if that's the case, then I guess I should go…"

Her words stung at him. '_No,_' he told himself, '_That emotion's wasted on her._' He stared down at her for a while, still taking in the words. "… I hate you." _I hate how you always make me feel twisted and awkward inside—how you make my stomach flip, how you make my heart beat faster, how you make me feel all of these feelings that I shouldn't, how pretty you are, how smart you are…_

Another smile graced her lips. "Yeah. I know, Sasuke-kun." Then, in a quick movement, she straightened up and pressed her lips against his like how she used to before this happened. She put everything into that one simple kiss, her broken heart, her sadness, and the unsaid words that were about to be spoken.

And all of that stunned him. He couldn't move, couldn't push her away like he wanted to, because when it came to her, nothing ever worked right. When she finally released his lips, all he could do was stare at her beautiful eyes that kept shedding tears. Then he heard the words that made his heart stop.

"I love you, Sasuke-kun."

Without a response from him, she slipped from underneath his arm, walked up the stairs and into her room, and began to pack her bags. The tears never stopped as she did, never stopped when she went downstairs and saw him sitting on the couch, and never stopped when she was out on the porch, staring at him one last time. With a sweet, sad smile, she waved to him. "Good-bye, Sasuke-kun." And then, with the rain the very next day, she left.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** Thanks to _LucyHeartFilia9109_, who was the first to review my last chapter!

Thank you all for reading, those who haven't reviewed and people who have reviewed recently: _AkatsukiJenny, Cheetay, cutecookiechick, _Erin_, ExistentialGhost, flare-hugs, HeyNowDontGetMad, ILoveSxS, killmeangel24, love-is-forever15, LucyHeartfilia9109, Miss Bright, naisAlert13, purplexninjaxdragon, and .Saku.x._

And so, the drama is turning to an entirely new chapter—and it's all Madara's fault. Sasuke's all alone now, Itachi's going to come back and hold the spotlight in later chapters, and everyone is going to be everywhere. :D

Please **review, review, review** and make me the happiest gal in the world. ^_^ Love you all!


	17. iDenial

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note:** Okay, well… I already know how much turmoil I've caused for my last chapter. (insert maniacal laughter here). That was INSANE, man. I love how you guys absolutely want to strangle a few of my characters right now. :D That's epic. Anyways, I've been listening to TONS of music lately, looking for inspiration, you know? And I ended up loving so many of them. XD Finding bands like: Yellowcard (thanks, **Laelia**!), Eyeshine (thanks, **Yvee**! :D), and, the infamous boy bands, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, and the up and budding Big Time Rush.

**Recommended songs: **

-**Headphones** by **Britt Nicole**

-**Damned if I Do Ya** by **All Time Low**

-**Boyfriend** by **Big Time Rush**

-**Alone **and **Dance With the Angels** by **Eyeshine**

-**City of Devils** and **Holly Wood Died** by Yellowcard.

… and there's much more to come. :D Check those out in the meantime…

Now… to answer an 'anonymous' review or two:

**Erin:** (laughs) Naw, don't worry, Sasuke's not going to die. ^_^ He's just going to suffer for a period of time like Sakura did… in a sense. So please don't cry. ^_^"

**Apple:** Ha-ha, don't worry. ;) Sasuke will suffer. And Sakura won't take him back so easily… unless he manages to do something that saves her life from some kind of life-threatening situation. Again. XD But, hey, we'll see, right? :D

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 17**

**iDenial**

**-xxx-**

Sakura shook with a heavy sigh as she approached the main building on the campus that had the words written in large golden letters: _University of Tokyo_ _Attendance Office_. She stepped in and knocked firmly on the door frame, eyes scanning for some life, if any.

"Oh, come on in, dear," chirped a cheery voice.

Sakura glanced around and managed to see a graying woman who was clearly beautiful in her youth, the sparkle in her eyes and the natural smile on her lips telling it all. Adjusting her bag on her shoulder and tightening her hold on her documents, the rosette forced a small smile.

"Um, hi," Sakura said awkwardly as she approached her. "I'm here to speak to the director of admissions?"

"This is she." The woman gave a bright smile and stood up, walking over to the girl and holding a friendly hand out. When Sakura managed to grab her hand and give it a firm shake, she laughed and said, "Pleased to meet you. My name's Nori Masami." She paused to take in the girl in front of her and smiled. "You must be the Haruno Sakura that everyone in the department's been talking about."

At that last sentence, Sakura felt her face heat up and struggled to push it down. "Oh," she simply said, not able to find any other words.

Masami chuckled and gestured for her to sit down, making her way to her side of the desk. "So, Sakura, judging by your sudden appearance here, I'm guessing that—"

"I'm here to affirm my attendance to Tokyo U," Sakura said, biting straight to the point without any hesitation.

The director's eyes widened, her eye brows raised at the directness. "Are you sure, dear? So suddenly?" She watched as the pinkette hesitated at that, knowing that it was most likely something back home that had prompted her to do this (her parents, perhaps?), but decided not to look too into it and waited for the girl's reply.

Sakura raised her eyes to meet the director's, the green in her eyes shining with a new determination. "Yes. I want to go through with this—the Tokyo University and Harvard pact, I mean." She paused and reevaluated the older woman's expression. "If that's not too much trouble, Nori-san."

At the sound of her name, Masami tilted her head up and gave her a small smile. '_I won't question it now,_' she thought as she saw a wave of loneliness and sadness wave over the girl in front of her. '_I'll wait until she comes forth herself…_'

Sakura sat in silence as she heard a few rustling of papers and slowly lifted her head up when she heard the lady clear her throat.

"Well, Sakura, I'm pleased to have you on campus now. I know that this may be a little—_informal_ and not in tradition, but you're quite the exceptional student." A small knowing smile graced her lips. "Make sure you've made the right choice."

After shaking her hand another time and saying good-bye, Sakura sighed as she stared blankly at the paper that she had been given—all of her classes from Konoha University were all on this paper. The only difference was that, in the top right hand corner next to her name, the words in bold were _Tokyo University_. Giving it a small, sad smile, she made her way to her new dorm, the conversation she had had earlier with her parents reverberating around her head.

_(Flashback)_

_ After she had told them about her decision, the silence that had enveloped them was thick with tension and unsaid words. Sakura chanced a look at both of her parents. She forced down a sudden urge to choke as she saw her mother practically age ten years in front of her, the apparent sadness in her face affecting her greatly as she held a hand to her chest, trying to keep in silent tears that threatened to slip down her cheeks from the apples of her eyes. Her father, although he looked impassive and unmoved, had the whitest knuckles as he clenched the barrel of his gun. The rosette let her gaze slip as she waited in silence._

_ Then, her mother spoke. "Are you sure you want to do this, honey?"_

_ Sakura forced a smile on her face. "Uh-huh! I think it'd be a great opportunity for me—you know, to start a good career. You know how great those internships are up in the hospitals in Tokyo, Mom." She felt the tears pulse behind her eyes and forced them down. "It'll be amazing, I promise."_

_ "This sudden decision doesn't have anything to do with that Uchiha boy, does it?" her father asked, his voice a mere rumble in his throat as he tried unsuccessfully to loosen the grip on his gun and suppress his urge to hunt down that chicken-headed dickwad. Father's intuition, you might call it. _

_ The rosette held up hands in defense and kept the fake smile plastered on her face. "Oh, no, not at all! I—I just want to pursue my studies, that's all…" _

_She didn't notice her parents exchanging glances. They both knew what a terrible liar she was; even from her middle school years they could read her face and pluck out the lies from the truth one by one. But this time, they decided not to. Haruno Akane smiled at her daughter and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Alright then, honey. You do whatever you think is best, okay?" She kissed her on her pink head and wrapped her into a hug, knowing that she desperately needed it. "Don't hurt yourself." _

'Please…_' her mother silently prayed, trying not to cry as she remembered back to the day after that raven-haired boy had left her broken and full of despair. She pulled away and brushed some loose pink strands away from her face. "There now. Go spend a good day here with your friends or something; we'll see you off at the train station tomorrow, okay dear?"_

_Sakura nearly flinched at the last word, remembering a cruel, sinister Uchiha before she smothered it and smiled crookedly again. "Okay! Bye, Mom—Daddy." Standing up, Sakura took her luggage and rolled it out, not turning back to look at her parents; the emptiness inside her seemed to dull the pace of her heart. _

_(End flashback)_

The rosette plopped down on her bed, sighing as she rubbed at the bags under her eyes from last night's sleep, or lack thereof. Letting her luggage crash to the floor, she pulled her knees to her chest and sat there on the mattress, her head resting stiffly between her knees as she sighed, her eyes a shattered, dead green.

She startled when the door opened and a petite girl with twin brown buns tied tightly to each side of her head waltzed in, not before turning around to give a guy with long brown hair and familiar lavender eyes a peck on the cheek. The girl turned around and gasped, clutching at her heart. "Oh, dear God," she said, laughing a little. "Wow—that would have been bad if I'd gotten a heartattack. I didn't know I had a roommate now." She gave another bright, cheery laugh as she held her hand out to the now standing rosette. "Name's Tenten. Nice to meet you!"

Sakura let a small smile grace her lips, too tired to fake one as she gave the girl a nice, firm shake. "I'm Sakura. It's a pleasure to meet you too."

The brunette regarded her with kind eyes, taking in her tired figure and dull, green eyes. '_Must have been through a lot… probably boy troubles._' Tenten gave her another small smile. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here."

In that moment, Sakura felt her shoulders relax, not knowing how stiff she was until then. She lifted her tired gaze and gave Tenten a sad smile. "Thank you, Tenten."

"No problem!" The brunette grinned. "Say, you said Sakura, right? My boyfriend's cousin knows you, then!"

Sakura blinked at her and then it dawned on her as she sat back down on her mattress and remembered the young man's eyes, watching as Tenten sat down on hers. "Oh, um… Hinata?"

"That's her." A beaming smile crossed her face and Sakura couldn't help but smile back despite her sadness. "She's told me lots about you—says you're a really dedicated student, creative, smart—" Tenten paused as gave the girl across from her a small, knowing smirk. "That's probably why you were granted such a huge transfer, huh? From Konoha to here."

Without any words, Sakura nodded, her body numb. "What else did she say about me?"

Tenten thought a moment—and then smiled. "Like I said, she told me lots. And along the lines, she told me that you were extremely music crazy." She laughed when she saw Sakura's bewildered expression. "She told me all about how you lost your iPod first day of med school. It was really cool, actually…"

Sakura managed to laugh, noticing how it sounded so unnatural and choked. "Yeah… that was a really tough day." She chanced a glance at her clock. _9:45_ p.m. already. A little early for sleep, but God, she was _tired_. Emotionally, mentally, and physically _tired_. Sakura sighed as she massaged her temples.

Tenten gazed at the pinkette. '_She's probably suffered from that guy that Hinata was telling me about…_' The signs were all there—bags from the lack of sleep, fresh tear tracks, and the dullness in her eyes… and it made Tenten feel just, so, so sad. Which was why Tenten—that impulsive girl—decided to walk across the room and hug her.

Sakura wrapped her arms around the brunette. It was all so strange—just a day before, she had been so happy, wrapped in Sasuke's arms and receiving such soft, beautiful kisses from him—and now here she was, hugging a kind, almost-complete stranger who was so perceptive of her feelings. Girl friend intuition, perhaps. But whatever the reason, however she did it, the aching in Sakura's heart seemed to lessen as another tear slipped down her face, starting sobs that seemed to last forever. She listened as Tenten spoke softly to her, rubbing her back in a loving, motherly way.

"It's okay; it'll all be okay, hon, just let it out."

As she buried her face in the girl's shoulder, as she cried and broke down for the second time in her life, she tried to find some truth in her words—and yet, it seemed so impossible, because nothing in the world would ever be 'okay' again—especially when her world was devoid of _him_.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke woke up the next morning to an empty bed and a pounding headache—or maybe that was just the door. He grumbled when he heard another hard knock on the wood, almost about to open his mouth and ask for his dear pink-haired girlfriend to go get it for him (and that he'd repay her back once she did) before he clamped his mouth shut, the empty space beside him in the bed working as a terrible reminder of what happened just the day before.

God damn it. This could _not_ be happening to him. Already a day and he could barely get himself out of bed without her—it was all so dangerously _stupid_.

Just before he was about to smush a pillow over his head and try to block out the knocking, a voice rang from the other side of the door.

"SASUKE-TEME, YOU FUCKING OPEN THIS DOOR NOW, YOU BASTARD!"

Of course. Naruto—that _dobe_.

'_Just ignore him… it'll be okay. He'll go away_,' Sasuke reassured himself, forcing himself to try and fall back asleep.

"DAMN IT, SASUKE, IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW, I SWEAR TO GOD THAT I WILL FUCKING BUST THIS DOOR DOWN!"

Or not. Grumbling, the raven-haired man groggily swung his legs over the bed and headed downstairs, opening the door for the blond to tell him to go the _fuck_ away—

Before meeting a hard sock to the face.

The force of the blow left a staggering effect, catching him off guard as he tumbled to the ground, landing painfully on his back on the cold, hard floor. Massaging his now tender cheek, Sasuke growled as he stood back up and grabbed Naruto by the collar and dragged him into the house, closing the door behind him. When he had managed to calm down a little—i.e. keep his temper so that he was able to _barely_ contain his anger when he stared at Naruto—Sasuke turned back to the blond. "What—the _hell_—was that for?" he managed to spit out between clenched teeth.

Naruto clenched and unclenched his fists, struggling to control himself from beating the hell out of the bastard. "Don't ask me that, you fucking bastard," the blond growled, his blue eyes burning into the raven-haired man's skull. "Don't you _dare_ ask me anything—what the hell have you _done_?"

"What the hell are you _talking_ about, dobe?" Sasuke retorted, ready to sock the blond back to Mars.

Naruto stared at him in angry disbelief. "I'm talking about _her_, teme! _Her_!"

Sasuke stiffened—turned to walk away. He didn't care where his feet took him, as long as he was away, away from him, away from his words, away from any word of _her_.

"Don't turn your back on me, asshole; turn around! Look at me!" Naruto followed Sasuke's footsteps into the living room and stopped when he saw Sasuke sit down on the couch. Naruto stood by the door. "You better tell me what happened with Sakura," Naruto said with a venomous undertone, "before I fucking kick you to hell."

If it was ever possible, Sasuke stiffened up even more. He looked away, staring blankly at the red bricks of his chimney. "Don't say her name to me."

"I can say her name to _whoever_ and _however_ I fucking want to, bastard!"

The sentence stung him, giving him such vivid memories of what happened yesterday that before Sasuke even knew it, he had Naruto slammed against a wall, a hand on his throat, his eyes feral and utterly empty. "Don't say her name to me," Sasuke repeated in a hiss, his hand clenching around the blond's throat.

Finding some strength left, Naruto pulled his arm back—and let loose another right hook on Sasuke's left cheek another time, sending enough force to have the raven-haired man reeling back again. Naruto's normally warm blue eyes went cold, as if the cerulean water within them had just frozen over. He stared down at his childhood friend and whispered, "You aren't in any position to tell me to do anything." He watched Sasuke get up and sighed, moving around his friend to get to the couch, flopping himself down. Staring back up at the raven-haired man, he gestured for Sasuke to sit down as if it were his house. "Let's just sit down and talk about this calmly for once."

Without a word, Sasuke clenched his jaw and sat in the opposing chair in front of Naruto.

The blond stared at his friend, eyeing Sasuke's refreshed look, his firm features and the physique that he had always managed to keep up. The only thing different, however, was Sasuke's eyes. They were completely devoid of the normal playful glow that had been present during the past months, replaced with a mere emptiness that promoted his eyes as being black holes—once the light was in, it never came back out again. His eyes betrayed his face and refreshed look, already revealing the effect that the rosette's absence had upon him. "Why did you let her go, teme?" Naruto asked his friend. The ice in his eyes melted slightly, but it didn't go away. "Why did you let her go if it just made you sadder than ever?"

Sasuke looked away, hating how perceptive everyone was about everything. "She lied to me," he muttered simply.

"How, huh?" Naruto pushed. "How the hell did she lie to you?"

"She didn't _tell _me about her _papers_ from Harvard or Tokyo U," Sasuke answered, his voice raised up just a notch before he managed to bring it back down. His hands were shaking between his knees, but he didn't notice. "Did she tell you about that? Huh?"

Naruto regarded him again before he sighed and leaned back against the chair, running a hand through his spiky blond locks. "Yeah. She did."

Sasuke waited a moment, letting the silence seep into his home. "And?"

Naruto gave his friend a tired smile. "I see I've got you there, teme."He laughed before his smile faded away, letting Sasuke see the tiredness of his features and the sadness that he knew was probably on _her_ face, too. "You're a real bastard." Naruto looked back at his friend before his eyes hardened and his jaw clenched. "She suffered so much yesterday."

_-x-_

_ He had seen her walking toward her dorm, and already he knew that something was off. "Hey, Sak! Sakura-chan!" Naruto called as he jogged toward her—and stopped when he saw the luggage rolling by her side. His arms went limp at his side. "Sakura-chan…"_

_ The rosette, hearing her name, looked up._

_ It was the biggest mistake of Naruto's life to look. _

_ Her face was contorted into an emotional mess. Her brow was scrunched together as she struggled to keep the tears from flooding past her eyes and down her cheeks, but it didn't do her any good as they trailed down her flushed face anyway, making her look like broken marionette. When Naruto looked back the tears in her eyes, there was no more shine, no more hope or happiness or love that he had seen before—all of that had disappeared, replaced by a cynical despair that even made Naruto die a little inside. He walked toward his friend and stared at her with big, blue eyes. _

_ He felt her collapse into his arms when he held himself out to her, holding her in his arms as he stroked her hair comfortingly, shushing her as she cried. "Sak, I'm here. I've got you." He heard the faint sound of her luggage falling to the cement as he continued to comfort her, putting his head on hers. He rubbed her back in small, soothing circles before he pulled away and pushed strands of pink hair away. "What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" _

_But it didn't take long for him to find out; all it took was one look at her broken green eyes, and the realization snapped inside him and he stepped away, the anger flaring through his veins. "That fucking bastard," he snarled as he stared at the rosette. "It was him, wasn't it?" _

_The way her eyes turned down told him everything, but just before he was about to stalk away, he felt an arm pull at his sleeve. Sakura's gaze was still pointed to the floor, but she spoke. "No," she said, her voice barely above a whisper as it wavered with emotion. "Don't, Naruto. It's okay." She smiled. "I was the one who left him."_

_The way she smiled up at him broke his heart. She looked so tired, so jaded from life, ready to give up at any moment. The light from her eyes was completely gone; the smile was fake, lifeless; and he knew that he had lost her. _

_Naruto tried to return a small smile back at her, but he choked; he couldn't do it. _'She wasn't the one who left him,_' Naruto thought as he sat her down on a nearby bench, taking her stuff in his hands while he let her spill out her heart to him, telling him everything. _

_He knew this for a fact—because, through her entire life, it seemed like a fact of life that _she_ was the one who couldn't live without _him_. _

_-x-_

Sasuke stared at his hands while he listened to Naruto's retelling, a little relieved that the blond didn't use her name in there. Whenever he heard it, he felt numb inside, unable to put a tag on his emotions—and that _irritated_ him. When Naruto finished, he soaked the words and stayed silent a moment. "So she's gone now."

"Uh-huh."

"She's not in Konoha anymore."

"Yeah."

There it was again—that numb feeling that he could never place his finger on. What the hell _was_ it? The irritation built up inside him so badly that Sasuke had to force the lid on his emotions shut. "Hn."

Naruto stared at him. "That's all you can say?" he said, standing up from the couch as he made his way to the raven-haired man. "After all of this, the only thing you can _ever_ find to fucking say is '_hn_'?" His fists unclenched, and he heaved a sigh and tugged on his hair, struggling as he tried to not cave in to his intense need to beat the hell out of the dense man in front of him. He let his hands fall limply to his sides as he stared at his friend one last time before making his way to the door. "I guess this is why she left you, Sasuke."

The raven-haired man pretended not to hear his friend's last comment, focusing only on the familiar sound of the door, which had just opened the day before and a mere half hour ago, creak shut. When he heard Naruto's car drive away, he slammed a frustrated fist on the coffee table, leaving a deadly crack straight through it. "Fuck," he bit through his teeth as he stood up and rubbed at his eyes. He felt tired, damn it. Tired of—hell, he didn't even know. Tired of _her_? Tired of _life_?

But now wasn't exactly the time to contemplate life or _her_ or even his _tiredness_—it was time to work. And that seemed a hell-of-a-lot better than thinking about _her_ or life. Heading back up the stairs and going through his morning routine was a great distraction, he decided when he finally finished and came back downstairs, his hair drenched and a towel around his neck. Sasuke sat there by the table, with a fist under his chin while he ate a tomato, biting into it with such vigor he swore he almost heard it scream. His thoughts wandered to that beautiful pink-haired girl—all he saw of her were her swift green eyes that glowed like emeralds and her long pink hair that fell in waves before he forced himself to clip the image from his memory. He stood up stiffly and grabbed his keys to head out to work, only listening to the click of his shoes against the tiles as he eyed his guitar in the corner of the room and headed out to the garage to get in his car to drive to work.

When he started up the engine, he waited for it to warm up, staring at the radio a little more than he wanted to. God, what the hell was he _doing_? The radio wasn't going to hurt him if he turned it on and listened to a little music. Pushing the button and watching the radio's screen glow blue, he twisted it toward a country channel, hoping to listen and laugh (well, _smirk_) at a great hill-billy accent.

He pulled out of the driveway and listened to the beginning, a soft guitar playing to a small beat of a repetitive drum. And then the voice that came after made his breath catch as he drove away from his house.

_**I woke up early this morning around four a.m.**_

_**With the moon shining bright as headlights on the interstate**_

_**I pulled the covers over my head and tried to catch some sleep**_

_**But thoughts of us kept keeping me awake**_

Sasuke held his breath as it continued onto the chorus, the sad, guitar echoing the young man's voice. He couldn't breathe and tried to concentrate on the road as he listened and felt something clench inside of him.

_**Take your records, take your freedom**_

_**Take your memories, I don't need 'em**_

_**Take your space and take your reasons, but you'll think of me**_

_**Take your cap and leave my sweater 'cause we have nothing left to weather**_

_**In fact I feel a whole lot better, 'cause you'll think of me...**_

Sasuke kept silent, pausing at a red light to listen to the song, listening to how the young singer described the frustrations of the thoughts that plagued his mind, how he couldn't get rid of the evidence of _their_ history, no matter what he did. '_God, help me_,' he silently prayed, shifting his right foot over to the gas pedal, seeing the company in the distance. Thoughts of her plagued him already, and she wasn't already a day gone. If only she could have taken all the memories with her…

_**I'm gonna be alright**_

_**While you're sleeping with your pride**_

_**Wishing I could hold you tight,**_

_**I'll be over you and on with my life...**_

The words stuck to him, his hands clenching on the steering wheel. Yes—he was going to be all right. That girl lied to him—he couldn't forget that. He couldn't give in to her like he normally would, and he wasn't going to expect her to come back to him. The odd twisting in his chest came again, and he scowled. "I'm not going to miss her," he murmured to himself as he turned into the company parking lot, found a space for his car and walked up to the building. '_No,_' he reiterated him himself again as he managed to make his way past the lobby and into the elevator, '_I won't miss her_.'

The raven-haired man made his way into his office, nodding to his uncle before he closed the door behind him, not knowing the cruel smirk on his uncle's face, Itachi's calculations, and the fact that Sakura was going to sleep tonight without a squarish item with seductive pink headphones that spouted music next to her bedside.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note: **I'm so sorry that I didn't get this one out as soon as I'd like and that this is a little slow—last week was full of tests and crap, with it all being the end of the first grading period of second semester and my second time taking the SATs to please my overbearing father. But yeah—you get the point. I was _swamped_. But! I manage, don't I? :)

Thanks to _ILoveSxS_ for being the first one to review my last chapter! :D

Thank you to those who have reviewed recently: Amirah_, _Apple,_ Cheetay, cutecookiechick, _Erin_, .FashionMonster., flare-hugs, HeyNowDontGetMad, ILoveSxS, _imaFREAK, _killmeangel24, Living-Life-to-the-Extreme, LucyHeartfilia9109, Miss Bright, , TheCinnamorollBoo, and .Saku.x_.


	18. iFind Out the Truth: Part 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note:** Okay, so… this is the extremely crucial part. The third and final part of the 'iFind Out's :D Pay very close attention to this beautiful chapter, dearests. ^_^ Thanks! Love you all.

Special thanks to **IceMaidenOfLegend** for reviewing all of my chapters _and_ being my **300****th**** reviewer! **Whoot whoot! :) Thank you so much. You really made my day. ^_^

**Erin:** (laughs) They're relationship status in the future… shall be heavily guarded for now. (zips lips) But there shall be a happily-ever-after. :D

**Livelaughlovepen27:** Ha-ha, thanks! I'm glad you like it. ^_^ I do work really hard to put in tons of emotions so that the readers can get really involved.

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 18**

**iFind Out the Truth (Part 3)**

**-xxx-**

Itachi twirled the pink string in his hand, holding the earbud in between his forefinger and thumb as he scrolled through the countless number of songs, multitasking by listening to his current song.

_**In a city of devils we live**_

_**A city of devils we live**_

_**Find somebody to learn**_

_**Boy, you gotta love someone more than yourself**_

_**I can feel the fire of the city lights burn**_

_**And it's hard to find Angels in Hell**_

A small smirk nearly twitched on his lips. "Angels in Hell…" he murmured, thinking of the ridiculous situation that his brother had gotten himself into—with Sakura, with Madara—all of Itachi's plans were utterly ruined thanks to that despicable psychopath of an uncle. And Sasuke was stuck in the middle of all of this, completely confused, lost, and in a city of devils. He was lost and couldn't find his way back.

And now Sasuke had lost his Angel.

The pink headphones stopped twirling in his hand, dropping limply back into his hand as he swung them into his palm and caught them. Itachi's eyes narrowed as he eyed the Uchiha company from across the street while he sipped on a warm cup of coffee within the café. Slowly he set it down and wiped off his lip with a backhand. His thoughts wandered to a rosette with large, gleaming green eyes, and a small, sad smile threatened to almost overtake his face.

'_What happened, Sakura?_' he asked his thoughts more than the girl in question, gazing out into the busy morning commute and sighing to himself. '_You were so close…_'

But of course, when anything involved little brother Sasuke, Sakura was bound to feel trapped when dealing with him.

Narrowing his eyes in a quick calculating stare, he stood up and brushed himself off, taking along the cup of coffee that was currently giving him enough energy to continue. He nodded to the nice young lady who so very _kindly_ opened the door for him to exit.

A terribly happy image of the pink-haired girl and Sasuke appeared in his mind as he took another sip of coffee, tossed it into the nearest trash bin, and shook his head. "Foolish little brother," he muttered to himself, his brown eyes dulling to a darker, gloomier shade, "You have no idea what you have just done to yourself."

With some resolution on his mind and calculations in process, Itachi sauntered down the street in slow, deliberate steps toward the company building in the distance.

**-xxx-**

It had been weeks after the pink-haired girl had left Sasuke's mansion for the northern parts of Tokyo. Winter was still winter; rain was still rain; but Sasuke had never felt any less than himself than in that time period. The bitter taste in his mouth from the spat he had with her weeks ago still lingered in his mouth, threatening to overtake him with nasty bile at any moment. Ever since _she _had left, Sasuke found himself worsening steadily.

Example A.

The loud, irritating beep of an alarm clock screeched through the quite morning air, rousing the raven-haired young man from his sleep. Well, not like he was managing any sleep anyway. _Sleep_ was now a foreign word to him—all he did in the past few weeks was wake up, eat, go to classes, and work until he couldn't move any part of his body or flex his brain. If he didn't do anything, if he slept, his thoughts and dreams would stray back to that sweet-smelling pink hair and those bright, sad green eyes. They haunted him, _she_ haunted him…

…and he _hated_ it.

And so, with the chain reaction of the lack of sleep and immense amount of stress on his body, it was a miracle that he wasn't losing his shape and good looks—you know, despite the mental, emotional, and physical fatigue.

Example B.

The moment that he woke up, he felt for something on the other side of the bed—and groaned. It had been a habit, to wake up and feel for her to see if she hadn't left, hadn't lied to him, hadn't disappeared from his life—and all he ever felt there was empty air and a cold side of his bed. Why he hadn't stopped doing it, he didn't know. All he knew was that whenever he felt the cold, empty space beside him, the annoying twinge in his chest came and all he could do was think about an overwhelming shade of pink and green.

Sasuke pushed everything away and headed over the restroom to take a long, cold shower. It was his first of many distractions of the day.

**-xxx-**

"Surprise!"

The rosette pulled her lips into a stiff, tight grin, her teeth showing, her cheeks puffed and her pink lips poised in a wonderful smile. But that smile never seemed to reach her eyes. "Hey, you guys," Sakura said weakly, greeting her friends from Konoha who Tenten had so kindly surprised her with. Her eyes grazed over each of them, the smile of her face still managing to keep its place as she took in red hair, blonde locks, and pretty lavender eyes that fit only on a certain girl's face. "How are you guys?"

Ino twisted her blonde hair between her fingers before giving a courteous nod to Tenten as she made her way into the room to her friend. "I think the question should be how are _you_?" the blond corrected her, putting a comforting hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"We heard about the Sasuke thing," Karin pitched in.

They all saw Sakura wince and recover, but the rosette, too busy trying to gather up a smile and put on a beautiful, happy mask didn't notice. "Oh," Sakura simply said as she mustered a small laugh. "You did? I…" She was at a loss for words. What the hell was she supposed to say? _I'm happy that you know now_? _I guess it just wasn't mean to be_? None of those things reflected any part of her mindset, because she definitely _wasn't_ happy with the fact that they knew; and the fact that it wasn't mean to be… that didn't seem like a fact to her at _all_. So, all she really could do was give in and slump her shoulders, reaching out to the redhead for a hug.

"It's alright, Sakura," Karin murmured while she gave the girl a very needed hug, a little shaken by the fact that this girl, the one who had buffered so many fangirls and managed to stay away from a man like _him_ for so long was now broken and jaded from life. She pulled away and looked over the pinkette.

Puffy eyes, broken smile, ruffled hair, rumpled clothes—definitely all the signs.

Hinata came forth and pulled her into a hug while Karin stepped away, calculating something. And then, she snapped her fingers. "I've got it!" the redhead said, capturing all the other girls' attention. She beckoned for them to come forth. "We'll have a girls' night out! One with awesome movies and songs and karaoke and shit, you know?"

Hinata twirled around from her spot next to Sakura. "I second that motion!" she chirped.

The brunette who had orchestrated the entire thing grinned. "A 'feel-good' party," she said to herself as she checked to see if the buns on her head were still in place. "Sounds like a plan to me."

"What d'you think, Sak?" Ino said, flopping down on one of the beds in the room. "It's all up to you, you know."

The rosette, who had managed to stay quiet the entire time, her chin buried between her knees, lifted her head, but didn't unwrap her arms around her legs. "A 'feel-good' party?" Way to be a euphemism for _pity party_. She almost wrinkled her nose at the thought. But, after all that had happened… it wouldn't hurt to just have a bit of a good time. Sakura let her lips form a smile for her. "That sounds great, actually. I'd love it."

Tenten pumped a fist into the air. "Yes!" She skipped across the room to sit with her new roommate. "This is going to be _epic_, I promise."

Returning a small smile at the enthusiastic brunette, Sakura gave a short laugh and said, "Whatever floats your boat, Tenten."

With the enthusiasm of a little girl ready to play with her newly received toys, the brunette dashed out of the room to grab her materials for their girls' night out.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke had managed to survive the elevator ride up to his office building without any forementions of _her_ and, before his mind could do any more wandering, he'd grabbed some paperwork from his uncle's desk to work on _something_ before he drove himself insane—thank God. Rubbing at his tired eyes, he trudged over the tiled floors and pushed at the gargantuan doors with the force of a dead man, a stack of papers under his arm. When it wouldn't budge, he heaved a sigh and slammed a fist against the wood. Well, it seemed like a slam to him. In reality, his hand, loosely balled up as a fist, merely smacked against the door like a fly, sliding down helplessly as he gave up and rested his forehead against the cool wood.

"Come in," said a smooth voice from the inside.

If Sasuke was dying from insomnia before, the voice inside sure did manage to jolt him awake. Mustering all of his strength, he grabbed at the doorknob and twisted it, giving it a good shove and stepping inside.

At his desk sat none other than the older Uchiha brother, his bangs falling loosing in frame of his face while the rest of it was tied back at the base of his neck. His eyes were cold and calculating as much as they were a light brown; at a first glance, he was calm, but Sasuke knew better than to underestimate the stiffness of his brother's jaw—Itachi wanted something. Something extremely _badly_.

Sasuke, after the moments of silence he had used in order to take in the fact that Itachi was indeed here and not a hallucination of his conscious (was he conscious?) mind, started up the conversation. "What are you doing here?" he muttered, too tired to shout or hiss or yell. "Eh, Itachi?"

The older brother didn't shrug. He stayed in the leather chair and bent a leg, resting an ankle right on the head of his knee as he folded his hands into his lap. The grim expression on his face was still unmoving. "I came here to talk."

"What of?" Sasuke snapped, feeling utterly irritated. "There's nothing to fucking _talk_ about."

The older Uchiha didn't move and instead leaned back against the cushiony back of the chair. "Actually, little brother, there is." Itachi's eyes flickered a moment before he continued. "We have to talk about Sakura."

"_No, _we _don't_." Sasuke was tired of being—well, _tired_. He had heard enough of _her_. Taking strong, quick long strides, the younger Uchiha was in front of his desk in seconds, his palms pressed hard down on the wood as he stared at his brother in the eyes with ferocity that matched that of a lion. "I don't want to hear about _her_," Sasuke spoke, his voice a mere rumble in his throat as he gritted his teeth. "I've been hearing about _her_ the entire time, the entire _three_ fucking weeks that she has been _gone_. It's always been about _her_, about how I _hurt _her, about how she's gone _because of what I fucking did_." He stopped and took a breath before continuing. "I didn't do _anything_ wrong; it was all _her_ fault."

"How so, Sasuke?" Itachi asked smoothly, his eyes narrowing at his little brother. "How in the _world_ is it her fault?"

"Because she _lied_ to me!" His shout echoed throughout the room as he swiped all of his things from his desk with a powerful arm, his belongings crashing to the floor. "She fucking _lied_ to me—she didn't tell me that she had those—those _papers_ that belonged to those _schools_. She was hiding them from me, and _she_ _knew it_." Breathing harshly, the raven-haired man stopped and breathed, his breaths coming in pants as he struggled to withhold himself. He lowered his voice to a soft murmur. "She was going to leave me…" Raising his eyes to meet his brother, he didn't realize that his eyes were tainted with a small, reddish tint. "…and she did."

Itachi watched as his little brother unconsciously clawed into the desk with his nails and shook his head. "Foolish little brother," he murmured, shooing Sasuke's hands away from the wood. "She didn't leave you—_you_ forced _her_ out."

The truth and the gravity of Itachi's statement knocked the air out of Sasuke's lungs. '_I… I did?_' His thoughts spun back to when he had found out the truth, had seen the papers and had confronted her about it. When in the _world_ had she told him that she was leaving?

_Never_.

The younger Uchiha felt his shoulders sag as he sat himself down in the chair in front of his desk, realizing what he had done. She had never said that she was going to leave; it was only up until Sasuke had scared her, forced the papers upon her, forced the truth _out_ of her that Sakura decided that it would have been best to just—_leave_. And now, here he was, miserable, lifeless… and Sakura-less. "A-Aa…" Sasuke breathed, placing a hand to his forehead as he stared emptily into the scratches that he had made with his nails just moments ago. '_I did force her out… didn't I?_'

"_Sasuke-kun!" breathed a more than relieved Sakura as she took off her wet shoes at the door and stared up at the young man before her. "Thank God, Sasuke-kun, I have something to tell you." She stopped to catch her breath. "It's about—"_

_"I already know what you're about to say." Sasuke deadpanned, staring down at her with such empty eyes that Sakura seemed taken aback._

_"Huh?" Sakura stared back, and then her face brightened. "You do? That's great!"_

His head snapped up in another realization. "She wanted to tell me something else that day…"

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What was it?" The older Uchiha leaned forward in order to capture his words, his eyes watching every single one of Sasuke's moves.

Sasuke swallowed soundlessly in order to wet his parched throat. He slowly put the hand on his forehead down on the desk and shook his head, once left, once right. "I don't know," he murmured, watching his hand clench into a fist. "I didn't give her the chance to say."

The corners of Itachi's lips twitched up in a knowing smirk. "Typical of you to do so," responded the older brother as he brushed a strand of hair away from his eyes.

"I didn't know," Sasuke droned in response, not having enough energy to give his brother a much needed retort. He raised his head to meet his gaze to his brother's and narrowed his eyes. "_You_ wouldn't happen to know anything about what she was going to say, would you, Itachi?"

"Hn," Itachi responded simply as he swiveled the chair to the side to glance at his brother out of his peripherals before he stared at an empty spot at the door, seeming to anticipate something as he folded his hands in front of his face and placed the bridge to the smirk on his lips. "As a matter of fact, I do." He swiveled back, holding his brother's gaze steadily with half brown-half reddish eyes. "I'm just wondering if you're going to be able to believe me or not."

Despite the tension of the situation, Sasuke snorted. "What kind of joke are you playing at?" he asked, leaning his face on a fist.

Itachi didn't move an inch. "I know that you won't be able to handle this." He paused a moment before he continued. "Actually, I have a feeling that Sakura might have beat me to it."

Sasuke froze. '_Beat him to it?_' Beat him to _what_?

_"Fuck what Madara has to say!" she shouted, waving her hands. "Madara just wants your company! That's why he's doing this—because he doesn't want you and Itachi to own it together. That's why he's been keeping you two apart, sending you to so many different colleges and making it seem as if Itachi was the one who left, while it really was __you__."_

The younger Uchiha raised head and caught Itachi's eyes. "She might have."

Itachi's jaw visibly tightened. "So she told you—"

"Bullshit." Sasuke's hands had clenched into fists, wrinkling his jeans as his brow furrowed into a hateful glare. "All she told me was fucking _bull_." Once more, he put his guard up, knowing that this man, the man right in front of him who he had dearly admired so much at one point in his life, was the man who had left him to flounder while his uncle—his _Madara-oji_—had come to his rescue to pull him out of the dump that he was living in. Why in _hell_ should he believe a fucking word that he said?

Itachi seemed to read his thoughts as he leaned back against the leather chair. He narrowed his eyes at his little brother. "What if I told you that everything she said was true?"

"Then I say," Sasuke said as he placed his hands on the desk, "that you two are both _liars_." He scowled at his older brother when Itachi didn't say a word. Feeling himself becoming more flustered than he should be, the raven-haired man calmed himself before he lowered his head a little and mumbled, "It's not possible at all…"

Silence enveloped them, the tension in the air so thick one would have cut a slice of it out of the air.

So thick in fact, that Sasuke felt the urge to spew out his thoughts.

"How in the _world_," he began, his voice still low and audible enough, "would someone be able to apply to Tokyo University or Harvard as a _joke_?" The question was followed by a pointed glance at his brother who merely stared back at him with analyzing eyes. "Who the _fuck_ would even consider doing that and _not _going to such prestigious schools?"

When no one answered, he pressed on. "Huh? How would that be, Itachi? _Who_ would that be?"

The older brother smirked, lowering his bridged hands and responding with a, "Only Sakura."

"But _why_?"

The question, the mere two words, hung in the air like a ready noose. It took a while for either side to think of it rationally. And then, Itachi spoke.

"The only rational reason that I would see behind it is because of _you_."

Sasuke didn't notice that he had stopped breathing, stopped staring at his brother—he felt himself slipping away despite the fact that his body was well-anchored in reality. His voice sounded far away and hollow. "What do I have to do with this?" he droned. He felt numb, felt light-headed, felt like he couldn't keep his ground on actuality—the only thing that he could do at that moment was listen.

"_You_ were the one who left her, weren't you?" Itachi probed, letting Sasuke hear the shrug in his voice. "Think about how much you mean to her, how much _pain_ you're able to cause her with one simple sentence—something like _I hate you_." The older brother watched as his little brother's shoulders tensed and found, in fact, that he had located his opening. "That simple sentence alone would be enough to kill her emotionally." Itachi leaned back against the chair, bringing his bridged hands back to his lips as he stared at the bloody scratch marks on Sasuke's once untouched desk and trailed his gaze to the items strewn across the floor. "Of course, your leaving would have done just as much damage. So then," continued the raven-haired man, "let's put this into perspective…" He waited for Sasuke to speak.

No response.

"…This young, beautiful girl has just lost the love of her life, the man who she had known since her toddler years. Now, then—what would happen to her?" Itachi mused, more to himself than to Sasuke. "She would stop taking life just as seriously and turn to consider self-infliction and or considering irrational thoughts, such as applying and rejecting schools as a minor feat of redemption."

Sasuke tensed. '_Self-infliction…_' No. She wouldn't. Not _her_, the angel who always had a smile on her face despite everything. She would _never_ turn to that. The younger Uchiha finally found his senses again and raised his head.

"So, because of you, she applied to these schools in order to throw away some part of her life by rejecting them—it was a bout of insanity for her, almost." Itachi turned his gaze to his brother as he swiveled the chair around. "With her state of mind for you, I highly doubt that she would have gone to the schools in the first place…"

_If it weren't for you_, said the silent voice after Itachi's sentence.

Sasuke shoved the thought away and returned his attention to his brother before he leaned back against the back of the chair and tried to relax, holding his brother's gaze. After a moment, he grunted. "Go on."

Smirk. '_Finally_…' Itachi thought as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on the desk. Sasuke was finally going to listen. Lowering his voice to a soft but audible tone, Itachi murmured, "I need you to be able to stay calm when you listen to me; don't protest, don't say anything—simply _listen_. Got it?"

Sasuke nodded once.

In a few quick moments, Itachi managed to summarize the contents of their parents' joint will, pulling it from a woven pocket in his waistcoat to quote some statements that claimed the company for the children—for _them_. Itachi leaned forward, his half-and-half eyes flashing in anger and some far-off resolution. "This is _solid proof_ that Madara does not have the right to own the company that _we _should have in our hands. All of your moving, all of the colleges that he has sent you to was in order to keep us apart—to keep me from telling you _all of this_."

A pause. And then Sasuke spoke. "Then how'd you get in here in the first place?" He could barely muster the internal strength to expel the sentence, the numb feeling of the fact that _he_ was wrong all along—and _she_ was in the right. She had been right all along.

Itachi smirked into the bridge of his hands. "The receptionist was never one to resist a pretty face."

Oh. _Oh_. Gotcha.

Even with the tension in the air and the numbness that was slowly consuming him, Sasuke chuckled softly and shook his head. "Of course."

For that small moment, the brothers could feel a small bond reforming, one that actually made them feel like—well, _brothers_. It was silence and peaceful…

…but the only thing missing was a certain beautiful pinkette who could make both of them—whether they wanted to or not—smile.

Clearing his throat, Itachi lifted himself out of the leather chair and looked at his brother, the emotionless mask study on his face once more. "I'll leave you to your business now, otouto," he said, casually putting in the 'little brother' tag at the end. He sauntered toward the door before he stopped and pivoted on the ball of his vintage shoe. "Oh, and one more thing…" Itachi said in his smooth voice as he walked back to his brother, a hand in his pocket.

Sasuke watched, bracing himself for a picture of his parents or some sort of other secret will—before his eyes widened slightly from the object in his hands.

There, in Itachi's palm, was a small, black squarish device, its screen dark from the lack of use. From its socket dangled long, seductive pink headphones.

"When did you get this?" Sasuke asked tonelessly, trying to smother up the panic in his voice that threatened to spill from his throat. It wasn't possible—she would have never left her iPod behind. It was a part of her; the mere idea of it not being with her seemed absolutely odd. Which was why Sasuke was so panicked, so suspicious as to _how the fuck_ Itachi got his hands on _this_.

On 'iSakura.'

Itachi simply stared at it. "It's a long story," he said tiredly as he stifled a sigh and turned his gaze toward his little brother. "But nevertheless, you must keep it for her." He stared out of the large, imposing window. "Besides, her birthday is next week, isn't it?"

"Wait, but I—" The flash of understanding cut his sentence off: Itachi was doing this for him—for Sakura. He was giving him a second chance. Sasuke nodded slowly. "Aa…" was all he could say before another thought struck him. He turned his obsidian eyes toward Itachi. "I'll deal with my problems, but first thing's first…"

A pause. Silence.

Then, Sasuke spoke. "How are we going to get Madara out?"

At his question, Itachi simply gave his little brother a small mysterious smirk. "In due time you'll find out, otouto," he said as he walked toward the door and opened it. Before he shut the door behind him, he looked over his shoulder, the emotionless mask placed over his face once more. "In due time." Then, the large, wooden door creaked shut.

And Sasuke was left alone. Shaking off the tension in the room, Sasuke turned his attention to the iPod in his hand, cleaning off the fingerprint marks on the touch pad before he unlocked it, placed the headphones into his ears, and pressed the replay button, listening past the first verse and tuned in when a stanza caught his attention.

_**In a city of devils we live**_

_**A city of devils we live**_

_**Find somebody to learn**_

_**Boy, you gotta love someone more than yourself**_

_**I can feel the fire of the city lights burn**_

_**And it's hard to find Angels in Hell**_

"It's hard to find Angels in Hell," he repeated, cuing out the rest of the song as his thoughts consumed him. '_Am I in Hell?_' he asked himself. His eyes found the pink line that connected the earbuds and he felt that numb feeling once more. '_Maybe…_'

The image of a happy, giggling pink-haired angel—_his_ Angel—appeared in his mind, her long pink hair falling in waves down her back as her apple green eyes stared up at him with unfathomable love...

Would he ever know such a feeling again?

Leaning back against the leather chair and placing his heels onto the desk, Sasuke stared up at the arch ceiling. A small choking sound elicited from his throat—it was his first short manifestation of a sob.

**-xxx-**

The old Uchiha chuckled, rubbing a hand through his spiky locks as he clicked off the baby monitor. A distorted smirk covered his features before he turned his gaze to the large imposing window in his room, overlooking the company parking lot. "That was some move, Itachi," he murmured, looking over to the baby monitor. "I couldn't have done anything to stop that."

And it was true. If he had decided to stop him in that moment, it was a sure-fire sign that he was guilty; choosing to ignore the situation and act as if he was never involved would have also given him the handicap, given Itachi's heavily persuasive skills.

Madara gritted his teeth behind his smirking lips. "Damn…" he muttered as he clicked his tongue and shook his head. He rested his head on the table, letting his ears focus sharply on the clear-cut footsteps that made their way down the hall. '_Itachi… how am I going to get back at you now?_' He drummed his fingers onto the desk, his brow furrowing with frustration as he tried to calculate everything out. Itachi had managed to get Sasuke to trust him once more, now with the lack of a certain pink-haired girl's presence and a more vulnerable Sasuke—talk about a backfiring plan. Now with Sasuke and Itachi's renewed brothership, there was only one way for Madara to keep the company at hand without drawing legal enforcements into the equation—

A slow, twisted smirk crossed his lips when the perfect solution came to him and chuckled darkly.

—and that way was through the girl.

**-xxx-**

The campus of Tokyo University was dark; students were all back at their dorms, either asleep or studying. Well, all but _one_. The lights had been on since the morning, brightly shining through the broad window. A clock on the nightstand read _11: 35 p.m._ and five girls were still up and at it, having their girls' night out. They had watched Korean dramas, _Titanic_, sang karaoke all day—and now, they were playing games.

Sakura watched as her friends played DDR, their legs moving frantically on the dancing mats as they sang obnoxiously to the song.

_**Oh, oh, oh! How was I supposed to know**_

_**That you were oh, oh, over me?**_

_**I think that I should go (GO!) **_

_**Something's telling me to leave, but I won't**_

'_**Cause I'm damned if I do ya, damned if I don't!**_

The rosette giggled at the lyrics while Ino and Tenten were flailing their arms and limbs all over the place. Their voices cracked once or twice in the middle of the song, making the three that _weren't _dancing and dying (Hinata, Karin, and the rosette herself) burst into fits of laughter.

In the middle of the song, Ino turned around, panting, but managing to say, "Hey, forehead, get over here and take my spot, will ya?"

"H-Huh?" Sakura sputtered, flailing her arms and limbs as Karin pulled her by the arm. "B-But I don't know how to—"

"C'mon, Pinky, just follow the arrows and move with your feet—that's all there is to it."

With some reluctance, Sakura picked up where Ino paused and played, watching the arrows and pressing them with the flats of her feet. Soon, she was dancing and screaming the lyrics, laughing as she sang.

_**Make a fool of myself when you hang around**_

_**When you're gone, I'm a match that's burning out**_

_**Could've been, should've done**_

_**What I said I was going to (said that I was going to)**_

_**But I never promised you (but I never promised you)…**_

By the end of the song, Sakura was panting and laughing until she cried—it was the happiest that she had been since the day that she left _him_. She wiped away the droplets from her face and grinned at her friends—her great, awesome, _girl_ friends. "You guys are awesome," she said, glowing at them with a smile. "You know that?"

Tenten laughed. "Psh, _awesome_? You mean _awesomesauce_, beast."

Before the girls could argue over whether or not it was one or the other, a swift pound was heard at the door.

"OI, YOU GUYS! WE HEARD THAT THERE WAS A PARTY AT TENTEN'S CRIB, SO WE WANTED TO COME WITH!" Oh, brother.

Sakura sighed and shook her head, knowing exactly who was behind that door.

When Hinata rushed over and opened the door, she was greeted with a tremendous hug—from none other than the blond himself.

"HINATA-CHAN!" he exclaimed, smothering her in his bear hug as he twirled her around, listening to her laughter with a ginormous grin on his face. "I missed you, babe!" Planting a firm kiss to her lips, he pulled away to admire the pinkness of her cheeks before turning toward the pinkette on the couch. "Oi, Sakura-chan!" he said as he waved to her, not realizing that the other boys had let themselves in. He pranced across the room, leaving Hinata to great her cousin while he plopped himself beside Sakura.

The rosette returned a smile to him—a tired, sad smile.

Naruto took a moment to gaze at her broken state (he could still see it despite her attempts to cover it up) and pulled her into a comforting hug. "How've you been?" he asked into her hair.

"Tired, but I'm managing." She pulled away from him and ran a hand through her hair, exhaling sharply. "But enough about me; how's you?"

"Don't try to change the subject, Sak." Naruto stared back at her with serious blue eyes. It was a whole other Naruto that she had only seen about once. "You're not okay. I know you're not."

They were quiet for a moment, listening to the others chatter about themselves—Hinata and Tenten with Neji, Ino with Shikamaru, and Karin with Suigetsu—before they resumed their conversation.

"So what do you want me to say?" she murmured back, wiping at her dry eyes with the back of her hand. "That my life sucks and I feel like crap because of all the things that have happened lately?"

"Yes," Naruto sustained without any note of sarcasm. "Yes, because you'd be honest to yourself."

She was quiet for a moment as she let her eyes drop down to her hands in her lap. "Maybe I don't want to be honest with myself."

"Sakura—"

"I _don't_," she insisted, resisting the urge to put her hands over her ears. "I don't want to be honest with myself right now." Her green eyes found his, and she knew that he could see the desperation, the _despair_ in her eyes as she struggled to withhold the obliviousness she had worked so hard to obtain and sustain. She didn't want to deal with anything—dear God, _nothing _related to _him_. Her lower lip trembled as she struggled to keep her voice in check. "Please, Naruto… don't make me think about him."

The blond stared at her, wanting so badly to have the teme here, right now, so that he could see how broken she was, how _dead_ she looked without him. He wished that the teme were here so that he, the proud Uchiha Sasuke, would realize how _empty_ he was without this girl. Naruto knew so much about how miserable they were without each other—and it broke his heart to know that they didn't have a single clue. "Sak—you're going to have to get some closure sooner or later."

She nodded slowly. She felt her eyelids droop as she leaned into her friend's arms, leaning her head onto his shoulder. "Yeah," she said, "I know." She couldn't feel anything—why was she so _numb_ inside? Why was she only like this for _him_? "But can I at least stay oblivious for a little while longer?"

For once in his lifetime, Naruto couldn't find an answer to her question—he didn't want to say yes, didn't want to say no; so the only thing that he really could've done and did was to wrap his arms around his pink-haired friend and give her a silent, comforting hug. "You do know that your birthday's coming up, right?" he asked her in an attempt to create a good change of subject.

She pulled away from him and sighed. "Yeah. What of it?"

He grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I was just wondering if you were comin' back to Konoha to let us celebrate it there with your parents and all—don't you think it'd be fun?"

Sakura chuckled a bit before she put a little thought in it and shrugged. "Well… I don't think it'd be _that_ bad," she relented, giving in to the blond before she giggled and ruffled his spiky hair. "As long as you promise not to eat the entire fridge, I'll do it."

"Really? That's all I have to promise?" Naruto grinned when she threw a punch at him and landed his shoulder—and surprisingly, it really hurt. "_Ow_," Naruto whined, rubbing at the now very sore spot before he turned his head to his girlfriend, standing by the table near her cousin. "HINATA-CHAN, SAKURA-CHAN HIT ME!"

The room erupted into laughter, spreading warmth around as they all chattered at Naruto about his silliness and their opinions on the couples in the room.

Sakura shifted uncomfortably in the warmth of the room, feeling a little more claustrophobic than she should have. Excusing herself from the little get-together, she grabbed at her bag and walked into the restroom. Shutting the door behind her, she sighed and looked at herself in the mirror.

God, she was a mess. The bags under her eyes were barely visible but were enough to make her cringe at her reflection. Her lips, abused by the wind and cold, were looking slightly chapped; she felt tired, the aching in her muscles and in her limbs making her want to just sit on the toilet seat and faint. Her cheek bones started to seem more prominent than before; not a surprise, of course, considering how she was barely eating these past few weeks. The thing that frightened her the most was how pale she seemed to have become—any shades paler and she would have resembled a ghost.

So, not only was she uncomfortable and insecure about how _god-awful_ she looked, she also looked dead to the bone. Great shit, man.

Rummaging instinctively through her bag, she relaxed when she thought of all the music that was about to come from her iPod, the guitar riffs, the piano backgrounds, the—

—currently non-existent music that she _still_ couldn't find.

"Oh, no," she breathed, her breath quickening as she rifled through her bag, searching, searching, _searching_—only to be disappointed by the emptiness of her hand where her iPod should have been held in by this time and the nakedness of her ear holes, untouched by headphones. Dear God—why did he hate her so much?

Slowly, she let her hands drop to her sides. Turned so that her back was to the door. Leaned against it and slowly, slowly, slid down until her bottom was rested against the smooth tiles. She cradled her head on the cushion of her arms that were currently wrapped around her knees.

_There was no music—there was no sound—there was no _life_. _

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, feeling tired—tired of life, tired of love… tired of _living_. '_Well… I guess when you don't have an iPod, it's a great time to sing…_' Letting her breathing even out, she took a breath—and sang the first song on her mind. Her voice was soft—and if someone strained their ears, they could hear her. Just barely. "_Who do you think you are, running 'round leaving scars? Collecting your jar of hearts, and tearing love apart… you're gonna catch a cold from the ice inside your soul… so don't come back for me, who do you think you are?_" At that, she couldn't go on—she could already feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She didn't want to cry. Not now; and not anymore. She had to be strong, had to smile for her friends to stop worrying about her. It was the least she could do without causing anymore trouble for them.

Getting herself back up on her feet, she stretched and started to wash her face, determined to try at another chance at life.

**-xxx-**

Naruto walked away from the door; his cell phone, once placed up to the door, was now back to his ear. "Did you hear her, teme?" he asked, making his way to the dorm's mini balcony. He tried not to shiver when he felt a cold wind rack his sturdy frame. "She misses you. She's hurting." The blond paused, hoping that Sasuke was listening to him before he added, "She's trying hard to get over you."

There was silence on the other end. No response.

The blond growled in frustration at his phone. "You fucking bastard, answer me when I'm talking! Don't you have a fucking heart _at all_, teme?"

Another moment of silence passed. Before Naruto could affront him again, he heard Sasuke say, "_I don't want her to._"

"You don't want her to _what_?" Naruto tugged at his blond hair, watching the streetlights of the Tokyo U campus flicker on. "You don't want her to miss you and _hurt_ herself?" He snorted. "Gee, then maybe you shouldn't have—"

"_That's not what I meant_," Sasuke retorted irritably. Naruto heard some papers rustling on his side. "_I… I don't want her to get over me_."

Oh. _Oh_. Naruto felt a grin spread over his face when he soaked in Sasuke's sentence. "I knew it, dattebayo!" he shouted, not caring who the hell was next door in the dorms—screw courtesy when you're trying to root your friends on. The grin had spread, brightening up his cerulean orbs. "I knew that you liked her, teme, I _knew it_!" A mischievous laugh elicited from his throat. "So you're going to be there for her birthday, ne?"

Silence. Rustling papers. Then a voice. "_Yeah_."

"You sure? 'Cause if you're not, I'm gonna—"

"_Don't worry. I _will_ be there. I promise._"

The blond tried hard to suppress the grin. Not a total epic fail, but still. "Heh-heh… alright then, teme. See ya."

"_Hn._" The other line clicked off.

Naruto pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it, listening a little to the dial tone. He flicked it shut and put it in his pocket, giving a little sigh before he looked out at the parking lot below.

"Naruto-kun?"

The young man turned around and grinned when he saw his girlfriend standing by the glass door, holding it half open with her petite frame. "Yo!" he greeted her, walking toward her and planting a sweet kiss to her lips.

She giggled and blushed, clutching onto the sliding door frame to keep her balance. God, did this man have a way with his lips. It always, always, _always_ made her stutter so badly. "N-Naruto-kun, you have to get inside—b-before you catch cold." She looked up at him with innocent, lavender eyes. "O-Okay?" She watched as he let his lips ghost down her face, past her cheeks, and she let her eyes close, enjoying the feel of his mouth on her pulse point. The heat immediately traveled to her face when she felt him suck sensually on her neck.

"Okay, Hinata-chan," he said against her neck before he pulled himself away, grinning when he heard her fail to stifle a whine. "Don't worry, love. That's what the couch is for, right?" He snickered devilishly at the pink forming in her cheeks before he ushered her inside and cut off the cold from the world inside.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note: **Finally finished, you guys! :D I'm going to try and finish the 19th chapter in honor of Sakura's birthday on Monday. Wish me luck? XD If it comes out late, then I'm making it a late birthday present for her. :) The nineteenth chappy shall be amazing; I promise!

Thanks to _love-is-forever15_ for being the first to review my last chapter! :D

Thank you all who have reviewed recently: _alyssaangel15_, Amirah, _blazinfire08, Cheetay, cutecookiechick, _Erin, _Existential Ghost, _fumiko-chan, _HeyNowDontGetMad, ILoveSxS, IceMaidenOfLegend, ImaFREAK, killmeangel24, lifelaughlovepen27, Living-Life-to-the-Extreme, LucyHeartfili9109, LoLo98, love-is-forever15, Miss Bright, ninjahugs, purplexninjaxdragon, Rouge Soul Alchemist, sasusakuluver102398, TheCinnamorollBoo, uchihasaime, ..Saku.x., and Yukiume. _


	19. iFight Fear and Pride

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or the songs used. O_O

**Author's note:** First off, this chapter is dedicated to Sakura! :D The beautiful, pink-haired, strong, beautiful kunoichi from _Naruto_ because MARCH 28TH IS HER BIRTHDAY, BEATCHES! _**Happy birthday to Haruno Sakura**_! (cheers) Coincidentally, it's her birthday in the story. (points) Nice! (laughs) I tried to make it so that I could update it on her birthday. :D

The end is drawing near, loves. I've already figured out that there shall be either 20 or 21 chapters, including the epilogue. :) Thanks to all who have dedicated so much time to reading and reviewing and favoriting me and my stories. You guys are all LOVE.

**Erin: **Ha-ha, well, you'll just have to wait and see~. ^_^ Things are starting to turn to the good… now all Sasuke has to deal with are his fangirls. What shall become of them? O_O

**LucyHeartfilia9109:** ^_^ It's okay! I forgive you for not logging in. XD Thank you so much for the review. :D You're just as awesomesauce. ^_^

**Livelaughlovepen27: **I love you! :)

**Amirah**: Ha-ha, well, Naruto is smart when he wants to be. :) I just thought that since Sasuke had someone to put him on track, Sakura deserved someone, too. ^_^ And Naruto was the best choice out there. I love guy friends, don't you?

Oh, and because this is really important:

**Description of Sakura's home and the area around it:**

It is a nice two-story house, near the ocean. I've always thought of Konoha as relatively close to Tokyo as to get there by train (train tickets are a tad expensive in Japan by the way, so people can't come and go as they please x_x), and relatively close to the ocean as Japan is surrounded by water.

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 19**

**iFight Fear and Pride**

**-xxx-**

The moon was up, shining down on Konoha's campus as students made their way to night classes…

…and a certain raven-haired man dreaded going.

In the past few weeks, the word had spread—Konoha's most talked-of couple was now _over_. That couple was, in fact, Sasuke and Sakura. Everyone had chattered of it: _who dumped who? Was it because she couldn't bang him hard enough? Maybe it was because of some HIV that she had developed_. Like a game of Telephone©, the word had spread, mangled and distorted from its former form. There were versions of their break-up all over campus.

Example 1.

"Oh, my _gawd_, like, did you hear about what happened to that pinky _slut_? The sex god dumped her ass, right?"

"Nuh-uh! S'not what I heard, girl. I heard that _he _slept around and _she_ told him, 'Bitch, if you goin' do stuff like, you better _get out_!' I heard that she said it was either him or her—so _she_ left."

"Ooh, I get it! That _bastard_."

Example 2.

"Omigood_ness_! Haruno Sakura, the one that everyone thought was going to be _Mrs. Uchiha_, got _dumped_, girlies!"

"What? Why the hell would he want to dump _that_ gorgeous thing?"

"'Parently, she was off blowing some other dude."

"_Nice_! I want some of that! Where'd she go?"

A shrug. "I heard that she was off in some brothel in New York."

Of course, when Sasuke heard these across campus, he had to cringe for his life. The girls (first example up there) seemed to have no common sense; Sasuke had _never_ slept around (well… maybe once or twice?) with women. And now he never would. The frat boys were no less terrible. At the second to last sentence he had heard, the raven-haired man struggled to stifle himself, tried to keep himself from turning around and sock one right to his face and say, "_There's your blow, ya bastard_!" But of course, being the stoic, uncaring, ice cube an Uchiha was, he walked away, hands clenched into fists… and proceeded to walk toward the nearest wall and give it nice, hard fist.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun~," greeted a brunette that he knew was trouble on heels.

Ah, and there was that other thing—the _fangirls_. They were after him ever since Sakura left…

She winked at him and giggled. "My, you look so _nice_ today, Sasuke-kun." She purred at him and nipped at the air between them.

And Sasuke was very, _very_ happy to have that beautiful space of air. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Hn," was all he said in response and started to walk away before he felt a small hand grab him and tug him back.

"Sasuke-kun," Reina whined, almost stamping her foot in frustration. Why didn't he notice her? Why didn't he jump at her like the other boys did? It was so utterly _frustrating_. She pouted and crossed her arms, watching Sasuke's sexy onyx eyes look off at the clouds in the distance. "Sasuke-kun, it's not polite to ignore people while they're talking to you."

Sasuke, despite his wandering eyes, frowned at her voice. _Sasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun_. There was only one girl who could call him that, the only one who could make him feel emotions that he never could feel unless it was _her_. And she wasn't here—in Japan, yes, but nowhere near where he was.

And all of that was going to change soon enough.

The brunette felt her blood boiling in her veins. What was with this guy? What was _wrong_ with him? There were so many more questions swirling around her mind, but the one that she really focused on was _Why the fuck doesn't this guy like me_? Grabbing him by the arm, Reina knew she was going to pull a brave move—moving onto her tip-toes with expert speed, she leaned forward, expecting a beautiful, warm pair of lips—

—Only to be disappointed when the raven-haired man nudged her away with some surprisingly gentle hands.

He stared down at her with empty black eyes. "Please stop," he monotoned in that deep, husky baritone voice.

"But—"

"I don't want your advances," he stated brusquely, peeling off her hand on his coat before he stood a good distance away.

Reina stared at him with accusing brown eyes. "You're not with that Pinky girl anymore; didn't you dump her?"

Sasuke stiffened, clenching his jaw in an attempt to hold his emotionless mask. "Her name is Sakura; and my relationship business is none of your concern, Toshiko-san."

"You're so _stupid_," she scoffed at him, tossing her brown hair over her shoulder. "All the guys on campus want me—and you're wasting your time moping about some pink-haired _whore_face that doesn't know when to quit on you." She looked him up and down before she _hmph_!-ed and turned to walk away.

At those words, Sasuke saw red, not realizing that his irises were slowly melding his black into red. He didn't notice anything except the severity of her words on his thoughts, thoughts that were all consumed by a smiling, innocent pink-haired girl. Grabbing the brunette by the arm, he led her behind a building and watched her smirking and leaning against the wall as he tried to keep his breathing and deadly thoughts under control.

Reina smirked. "Turning around now?" she asked triumphantly, pleased with her handiwork as she prepared herself for a harsh kiss from the sex god himself.

But that never came.

Sasuke took slow, deliberate steps toward her, the contempt building in him when he saw her smirk widening. He extended an arm and placed it right by her head. And _sneered_ at her. "_Am_ I the stupid one?" he asked her, his voice deadly venom that threatened to bite and tear at the brunette's emotions. He _hn_-ed at her. "Would you like to know why I'm not wasting my time with you?"

_Smack_!

The brunette stood there, watching his cheek turn pink as she panted with anger. "Wasting your time with _me_?" she repeated, her face red with fury and satisfaction when she saw his jaw clench. "You should be considering yourself lucky that you get to talk to one of the hottest girls on campus, you jerk!" Trying to keep her anger under control, she smiled with an air of satisfaction when she saw his head lift slowly, crossing her arms as she waited for the apology and the frequent begging for forgiveness.

To her surprise, he lifted his gaze—and nearly made her breathing stop when she saw his eyes.

His irises were blood-red, making him look hungry for more to fill the black void in his eyes. His face was devoid of emotion; his hair framing his pale skin. He was beautiful—and he _scared_ her.

"I'm not wasting my time with you," he murmured, injecting more poison into his sentence as he touched the tender skin that she had smacked, "because you're not _her_." He straightened his spine, staring down at her with _those eyes_ that threatened to burn her alive. "_She_ would never hit me, no matter how mad I make her; _she_ waited for me when I left _her_." By now, his voice was so soft, so low, so _dangerous_ that the brown-haired girl pressed herself against the wall, not caring about the raised surface of the walls that dug against her back. "So," he said, "the only _whoreface_ I see here"—his eyes flickered—"is _you_."

Silence and tension deafened the air around them, forcing Sasuke to pull his arm away from the wall. His eyes flickered back to the raven black as he watched the brunette—her eyes wide with fear and fresh with tears—slowly side down against the wall, her body trembling. To her, he held no pity whatsoever. He let his eyes wander to the clouds again, watching them float along the gray horizon as air brushed against the verdant trees. "There's only one woman," he murmured, more to himself than to the brown-haired girl, "that I will dedicate my time to…" He sauntered away, leaving the brunette alone as he made his way to his make-up math class, noting the date on his cell phone as he walked under the streetlights that lit his way.

_M A R C H 2 7 __TH_

Tomorrow, he noted, was going to be a long day.

**-xxx-**

Madara sat at his desk, watching the rays of moonlight spill across the floor of his office as he riffled through a few papers on his desk, seeming to look for something in particular. At a certain manila folder, his blood-red eyes gleamed. '_Gotcha_.' Flipping it open, he muttered something to himself as his fingers found a paper—and smirked.

There, on the paper, was a picture of the pink-haired girl and her information—her phone number, her age... Ah, the assets of having her volunteer at the company.

His eyes scanned the page. '_March 28__th__… her birthday's tomorrow._' The corners of his lips twitched upward before the ever-present distorted smirk slithered across his mouth. "What an opportunity," he said to himself as he grabbed a pen and wrote down the following in neat handwriting:

_**March 28**__**th**_

_**32451 Chiharu Street, Konoha, Japan**_

Tossing the pen into his writing utensil holder with incredible accuracy, he placed his heels upon the desk and sat back with his hands behind his head, humming a song in order to drown out the sounds of his old love's screams that seemed to echo in his mind like a mantra.

Tomorrow… he would make his move.

**-xxx-**

Itachi held the rope between his teeth and tugged it hard. He could feel the material chaffing his wrists as he attempted to move his hands and nodded at the strength of the rope. Slowly, he started at the knot himself, trying to unravel himself, a game that he had managed to do nearly hundreds of times that night. His dark brown-reddish eyes focused on the coffee cup that sat before him on his kitchen table.

'_Fifteen seconds this time,_' he thought as his hands kept themselves busy.

His eyes kept hold of the timer in front of him. Ten seconds in, and he had already gotten half of the knot. His teeth ground together as he finally finished and slammed the button, eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the eighteen-second mark. Three seconds away from his goal.

It wasn't really his idea of a fun night, spending it with some rope, a cup of coffee, and a timer, but something nagged at him after he had seen the baby monitor that Madara seemed to have failed to hide underneath Sasuke's desk and nudged him toward the idea. So, on his way back from his talk with Sasuke, he decided to stop by a random store, picking up a magic tricks box that included rope and escape tricks.

And so, here he was—rope, coffee, timer and all.

He scratched at his head, tightening the loosely tied ponytail that hung at the back of his neck before he picked up the rope again and tied his wrists behind his back for the two-hundred-and-fifty-seventh time that night.

His thoughts wandered to a pink-haired girl, and he thought of her terribly contagious smile, her happiness, her _joy_—it made his lips press together in anticipation of tomorrow.

Smacking the timer once more, he stifled a sigh as he stared daggers at pointer that stood straight on the number _18_. It was going to be a long, long night.

**-xxx-**

Sakura woke up that March morning, feeling her eyes throbbing. She sat up and stifled a groan, eyeing the clock on the nightstand. _6:35 a.m._ Great. Quietly, she slipped out of her bed, walking across the room as to not wake up Tenten who was snoring softly. Grabbing a pair of slippers, she nudged the door to the balcony open and, once on the other side, she slid it shut, holding herself as a chilly wind passed through her.

Winter never seemed to have gone—spring never seemed to have come. It was impossible for her to say it was spring in March when the weather was still so cold.

She looked around and her eyes landed on a small, unused radio. Shuffling across the balcony, she looked it over and decided that it was still usable—she needed something, _anything_ that played music that could even temporarily fill the void in her heart. Turning the dial on the radio, she twisted it around and stopped on a song that made her heart stop.

It was slow, an echoing voice and haunting piano background. And it made Sakura drown.

_**I don't know anything at all**_

_**Who am I to say you love me?**_

_**I don't know anything at all**_

_**Who am I to say you need me?**_

__She swallowed soundlessly as vocalizations came in, a guitar soothingly supporting her voice before she heard the piano again. And then, came the voice.

_**Now you're a song I love to sing**_

_**Never thought it feels so free**_

_**Now I know what's meant to be**_

_**And that's okay with me…**_

Cradling her head into her arms that were wrapped around her knees, she leaned her cheek into her arms as she did last night in the restroom after she had found out that her iPod was gone, missing. She knew that Itachi still had it; how stupid that she had forgotten it, left it behind as if she really didn't need it. Oh, but God, she did. She closed her eyes, feeling the sunrise against her skin as she listened to the music, the melancholic voice, the soft despair that caressed her skin like a comforting hand.

And for once, she felt his name forming on her tongue. "Sasuke-kun…" she murmured softly for the first time in the three weeks that she had left. It made her think about how much she really did know about him, how much she had learned about him…

The past few months had been such an odd experience; she found her heart thumping harder in her chest than it had ever worked before, found herself blushing more often as his lips found hers and found herself wanting him to touch her, to hold her like he used to. Her thoughts of the months brought her to the years that she had known him, the times he had spent at her house, the laughter and secret smiles that he had shared with her, and the accidents that had blown them apart…

'_Graduation night… the night he left…_'

…would this time be just like the last times?

Would they spend several more years apart, their happiness put in suspension before they reunited and fell for each other another time?

_**Don't know anything at all**_

_**And who am I to say you love me?**_

_**I don't know anything at all**_

_**And who am I say you need me?**_

The song resonated in her ear, and a bitter smile found its way across her lips. Of course—who _was_ she to say that he fell for her, _needed_ her when he never told her those three crucial words?

Lifting her head, she stared out at the sunrise, a little shaken when she saw the sky smeared with pink, orange, yellow and purple, smudged and distorted to the point where they seemed to switch places in the sky. It wasn't until she heard a voice behind her and Tenten's arms around her that she realized that she had been crying and felt the tears roll down her face.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke stepped out of his car and locked it with a swift press of a button. He stared up at the house that he had known since his childhood days; he had known the way here, not needing to double check on the address. He swallowed soundlessly, forcing his legs to move, not knowing what to expect from them.

His legs felt like sheets of lead as he made his way up the granite steps to the humble home. Sealing his fate, he knocked on the door with a heavy hand and waited.

When the door opened, Mr. Haruno appeared; his face, although bright and cheery as a host should be, seemed to have aged about ten years since he had last seen him—and seeing a certain raven-haired man at his door didn't seem to make his situation much better. The look of surprise that he had on his face when he had first seen the young man instantaneously disappeared, replaced with a frightening look of fury as his face grew red. It almost looked like his blood _boiled_ before Sasuke's eyes.

"_You_," Tamotsu hissed menacingly, advancing toward the young man and grabbing his collar. "How _dare_ you show your face here again, you little bastard?"

Sasuke, keeping his composure, resisted his instinct to push him away, reminding himself over and over again that this man was _her_ father; he wouldn't forgive himself if he had done anything to hurt the old man. "Haruno-san, I—"

"You know what, Uchiha, stay here for a moment," Tamotsu said, giving him a strained smile as he released his collar and made his way back inside.

Sasuke looked after him, watching as he shifted through all of the guns on his rifle shelf. "Sir?"

"Stay where—" The white-haired father stopped a moment and thought, looking at a certain rifle before his gaze went back to the raven-haired man. "Actually, I think it'd be nice if you ran around a little." He cocked his gun. "It'd be great target practice for me."

"Tamotsu?"

The man raised an eyebrow and turned around to find his wife standing by the kitchen door. He waved and gave her a pleasant smile. "Hello, love," he said, the hunting rifle still in his hand. "Care to join me for some shooting practice? There's a great specimen waiting outside."

The redhead shook her head and walked toward the front door, staring at her husband with stormy grey eyes. "Hon, this really isn't the time! We still have to set up for—" The sight of Sasuke made her stop. "Sasuke?"

Thank God. "Konichiwa, Haruno-san," he said, greeting Mrs. Haruno, hoping that she would be more reasonable than Tamotsu.

"What in hell are you doing here, you little two-faced douchebag?"

Of course he was always hoping for too much.

Sasuke stifled the urge to groan. _Dear God_. "Please, Mrs. Haruno, if you'll just let me explain—"

"Explain what, dear?" spat Akane as she narrowed her grey eyes at the young man. "Explain to me for the fact that you didn't drive her away from us and break her heart into two?" The storm in her eyes grew when all she could hear from him was silence. "Hon, I gave you a chance with her with Tamotsu didn't; and now, my daughter is off in _Tokyo_ with no one to keep her from her sadness."

Sasuke stood there, his black eyes staring back at the redhead who looked so much like the girl who was constantly in his thoughts. He shifted his gaze to the granite stones. "I'm sorry."

She stared at him a while before she wiped her hands on the apron around her waist. "_Sorry_ doesn't cut it, Sasuke," she said softly before she turned around and walked toward the kitchen, stopping only to look at her husband in the eye and saying, "You do whatever you want with this one, Tamotsu. I'm done. Sorry." She disappeared into the kitchen, apron and all.

The white-haired man stared after his wife, sighing before he walked toward the door with a stiff jaw, a rifle in hand, and a pair of dark green eyes. He stared at him in silence for a while before giving him a jerk of his chin. "I'm calm now. Go on—what're you doing here?"

Sasuke, finally given the chance to speak from the most unexpected person, felt all of the air draw out of his lungs as his eyes lifted from the granite stones and met his green eyes. "Haruno-san," he said, addressing the older man with an air of respect, "may you allow me into your home so that we can speak?"

Her father was quiet, but he moved his rifle out of the walkway and gestured wordlessly for the raven-haired man to come inside and sit at the couch—the one that he and his daughter had sat at once a while ago.

Once sat, Sasuke stared across the coffee table at the white-haired man, staring straight into his eyes with the confidence that he had been raised to withhold. "I'll just get right to the point here, Haruno-san," he said quietly but audibly enough. His obsidian orbs glimmered with some hope that he had forgotten. "Will you permit me to still be with your daughter if I manage to bring her back to me, sir?"

Tamotsu stiffened at the directness, his grip on the hunting rifle tightening. "Give me three good reasons, son."

The raven-haired man answered him without any thought or hesitation. "Because I am miserable without her just as she is without me." It was the first thing that came to mind, the first thing that he thought when he silently told himself to spout out the truth. "Because I don't want her to dwell in the past anymore, sir." His obsidian eyes, the ones that he had worked so hard to keep from releasing any emotion that might have passed, gleamed with ever-present frustration and determination.

Tamotsu watched him in silence. '_This young man…_'

"So, sir, I ask you again—will you let me continue to be with your daughter if I bring her back?" And then, he stopped—and he waited.

For a moment, all that they could hear was the sound of her mother, bustling around the kitchen, preparing for the birthday party that was approaching in the night.

Then, Tamotsu cocked his gun again, watching as the raven-haired man flinched unconsciously as any human would. Then, he put it down—and spoke. "It's not me you should be asking, son," he said softly, staring back at the boy with the green eyes that Sasuke felt were burned into the back of his mind like a vivid photograph. "It should be my girl."

Sasuke couldn't speak. His mind went blank for a moment before he regained his senses; slowly, he reached over the table and held out his hand, shaking Tamotsu's hand firmly in two shakes. "Thank you, Haruno-san."

"No, son," the white-haired man returned, "Thank _you_."

Pulling his hand back, Sasuke, for once in his life, hesitated before he said, "Haruno-san, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, would you mind doing me a favor?"

Tamotsu held his stare. "And what would that be?"

His obsidian eyes flickered once, an idea springing to mind. "Would it be possible if I saw Sakura today?"

**-xxx-**

A large white van pulled into the Haruno driveway, parking swiftly, making it wobble a little before landing sturdily back onto the pavement. The people inside groaned as they all stepped out of the car, one by one.

Naruto grinned as he got out of the driver's seat, scratching his head sheepishly as he helped his girlfriend out of the passenger seat. "Sorry, guys," he said, addressing the seven others that had gotten out of Naruto's metal death trap. "Rough ride?"

Ino groaned, holding onto Shikamaru for support. "Jesus Christ, I think I dislocated my spine…"

"Well, at least you didn't nearly break your skull," retorted a certain redhead as Suigetsu helped her with her glasses.

"Didn't you take the driving test for certification, Uzumaki?" Neji asked stoically, watching as Tenten jumped out of the car with the spirit of a child. He smirked at her.

Tenten laughed. "God, that was _awesomesauce_! Can we do that again?"

"You're crazy," Hinata pitched in, her lavender eyes glinting with amusement. "I love this man, but not enough to go through that again."

Before Naruto could attest to the fact that he, _in fact_, did have a driving teacher and was absolutely, one-hundred-percent certified, Sakura (the silly girl) dashed up the driveway and into the house. "I can't believe you guys made me late to my own party!" she shouted behind her at her friends, heading upstairs to get a new change of clothes—

—before a hand stopped her mid-step.

"Not even a 'hi' to your old man?"

She turned around and smiled up at her father, giving him a hug. "Hey, Daddy!" she greeted him. "I missed you." She pulled away and looked over his shoulder, eyes darting every which way. "Is Mom here?"

"She's in the kitchen," he answered, leading her away from the kitchen door. "It's best not to bother her right now."

The pinkette frowned. "What's wrong?" She placed a hand to her chin and then stared at her daddy accusingly. "Dad, did you piss her off again?"

He shook his head. "She's just a little tired from working so hard to prepare your party," he replied, ruffling her hair despite her objections. "You know—mom stuff." Looking back at the kitchen, he led her over to the stairs. "Don't tell her that I told you this, but she's still kind of not ready. It's still relatively early, so she doesn't expect you home yet. D'you think you can go and take a jog or something?"

Sakura nodded quickly. She knew how much her mom would _freak_ if she, the mighty, awesomesauce birthday girl (it was her birthday—she deserved to have some conceit in her life, right?) was home before the party was all started. It just didn't work that way for Mom. "Alright. But I'm calling my friends in, 'kay? Then I'm off."

Making her friends head toward the front door to enter, she quickly changed into a pair of shorts and a sweater, taking a pair of her favorite running shoes before she slipped out the back door and started toward the jogging path by the beach at a nice pace.

Without her music, she tuned into nature, listening to the way the wind whistled through her ears and the crunching of sand under her feet and under the tires of cars that managed to pass by every now and then. The beach, because of how cold the weather was the past few days, was empty; there wasn't a soul anywhere. And, in fact, she liked it like this. Empty, quiet, devoid of life—it made her feel as if she was forever at peace, as if pain, sadness, and heartache could never touch her again…

…up until she saw familiar raven black chicken-butt hair on a certain young man that she thought she would never see again.

Her mouth dried and she couldn't breathe; she didn't realize that her feet had sped up, unconsciously wanting _so badly_ to jump into his arms, to cry into him and tell him how much she missed him, but forced herself to slow into a walk when she saw his head turn and she met his emotionless obsidian eyes that burned into her skin.

Sasuke had seen her out of his peripherals, jogging toward him with an unnatural speed. For a moment, he had wanted to stand up and run toward her and take her into his arms and just… _touch _her. But knowing her state of mind, her sadness (_it was his fault—all his fault_), he stopped himself and resisted her, instead simply settling to turn his head casually and take in her beauty and her frail body that seemed to have grown more fragile over the three weeks he had missed her.

She stood; he sat. They stared.

And suddenly, simultaneously, they felt something burst inside them as they found each others' eyes, emerald and onyx reclashing for the first time in three weeks—and they had a mutual understanding of the inner explosion.

They heard the waves crashing against the boulders below as they lost themselves, drowning not from the sound of waves, but the feeling at the simple act of staring.

Sasuke stood up from the ledge, feeling the sea winds blow at his hair, tossing his bangs in and out of his face as he walked over to the pink-haired girl and stared at her, beautiful pink hair, green eyes and all. "Sakura…" he murmured, her name dropping from his lips as if in a prayer.

She stiffened, willing herself not to tremble as she heard him say her name. She stared up indignantly into his eyes. "What are you doing here?" she asked as coldly as possible, watching the distance between them in case he came too close.

(_God, his stare, _his stare_, it burned her to pieces._)

He stared after her, his eyes tracing the more prominent cheekbones, noting her loss of weight and flat eyes. "I came back because I wanted to," he answered in his baritone voice, walking toward her, watching as she took a step back.

"That doesn't explain why you're here," she snapped, her brow furrowing in anger.

He was silent for a moment. "I wanted to talk to you," he murmured softly.

She felt her breath hitch in her throat before she forced herself to breathe, to not get caught up in the moment. '_He's only drawing you back in to tear you apart again_.' Her eyes dulled at the thought; she took another step away from him. "What is there to talk about?" she droned, holding herself as if she would fall apart without her arms around herself.

"Tons," he answered simply.

She heard the pause in his voice. "Like?"

His emotionless mask was still there. It bothered her so much.

"I heard about Madara," he said, turning his gaze out to the setting sun. "And about the company." Turned back to look at her with that _beautiful_ face that made Sakura's heart pound. "And about you."

She swallowed soundlessly, still staying put. "That doesn't tell me anything."

Letting his eyes linger on her form a while before he turned back to the ocean water, he stared at the white tips of the waves before he spoke again. "Every morning," he said, brushing his bangs out of his eyes, "I would always wake up and feel the other side of the bed." His eyes narrowed at her as he continued. "Do you know why?"

Her eyes were still fixed on him as she stiffened under his gaze, hands clenched at her sides. Then, she shifted her gaze down at her feet and tossed the sand around. "Was it because you wanted to check to see if the girl from whatever night was still there so that you could kick her out, too?" Her veins had started to itch and her hand unconsciously traveled to her arm to dig in her nails into her skin.

Sasuke didn't realize that he had done it—her dead eyes, her nails digging into her flesh, her _soul_ that was practically leaking from her entire being had pulled him in—

And he had managed to capture her arms within his hands, firm but gentle enough to keep her comfortable.

The moment that she felt his hands on her arms, her veins seemed to _explode_; it was as if her blood was on fire. She thrashed against him, desperate to have him let go. "Stop it!" she cried, tears of desperation bursting from her eyes as she struggled to pull away, tried to get away from the _searing blaze_ that was in her. "It burns," she sobbed as she held her hands to her face, trying to stop the tears. "It burns so much, please, let me go…"

But he didn't. He held on to her, feeling the same, intense burning through his veins as he held her firmly, coaxing her into his chest as he held her wrists. His lips found her face, and he pressed soft kisses onto her eyelids, her forehead, her cheeks. "Do you know why I felt the bed in the morning, why I came back?"

_No, no, no_—she shook her head vigorously, hair splayed about. "Please—" Her voice choked on her sobs.

He watched her as she searched for freedom, for any means of escape.

"You left me," she hissed at him him, so softly, so _agonizingly_ full of pain that he could barely hear her. She knew what he meant—but she couldn't believe it; she didn't want to. "You left me twice—and now you're saying that you came back for me?"

"Aa," he answered, slowly nudging her arms away from her face and her arms away from her body as his lips made their way down to her neck, holding her so that she would break from her trembling. "Aa."

She cried—shook—trembled. "Please, Sasuke-kun—stop…" Her protests were weakening by the moment, her body betraying her as she pressed herself closer to him despite the burning. Only he could make her feel like this, _feel alive_.

Despite the tension, he chuckled. "_Sasuke-kun_," he repeated, loving the way it sounded on her lips. "Only you…" he said, "…can call me that."

Finally, she opened her eyes, her emerald eyes meeting his obsidian ones, the eyes, the ones full of tears and pain, that would always be etched into the back of his mind. She thrashed again, knowing that what she was doing was _wrong_; it was _terrible_. She was _betraying_ herself. She stared up at him again with pleading green eyes.

Pulling back from her neck, he stared down at her, forcing her to stare past his emotionless mask and into his eyes, the black pools that exuded so much frustration, so much determination she stopped breathing—and stared.

She could see the apology, his realization, all of the events that happened that led him to come back, from when Itachi spoke to him to his thoughts when he came _here_.

And then, she felt the tears coming back. They dripped, slowly, carefully down her face, maneuvering past her nose to scar the beautiful flesh of her cheeks.

It was a strange, beautiful sight to behold.

"I have something for you," he murmured before he took out—

Her stifled gasp rung in his ear.

—iSakura.

She took it from his hand and looked up at him with wide green eyes. For the first time in a while, a bright smile curved her lips as her hair whipped around her in waves of pink. She almost matched the setting sun at sea. "I thought Itachi had it," she said, her voice soft as she struggled to keep herself under control.

"Hn."

She smiled at him. "You and your one word answers…" Taking his hand, she led him over to the ledge, sitting as to dangle her feet over, staring down at the water that was only six feet below, watching the waves crashing into the boulders, battering them with white tips of foam. She untangled the earbuds and held one out to him.

He took it graciously and sat down beside her, letting his feet dangle over the edge as they had been before she had come across him, sitting by the water. Eyeing her sorting through her songs, he stopped her, silently slipping the iPod from her hand and, before she could protest, silencing her with a finger to her lips. With deft fingers, he found his song in seconds and clicked the play button, fast forwarding it to the chorus.

_**There was a new girl in town.**_

_**She had it all figured out (had it all figured out)**_

_**And I'll state something rash—she had the most amazing…smile**_

(Sakura smacked him at this line.)

_**I bet you didn't expect that**_

_**But she made me change my ways (she made me change my ways)**_

_**With eyes like sunsets, baby**_

_**And legs that went on for days…**_

She smiled, their eyes still connected with the headphones as she leaned her head onto his shoulder and whispered, "I missed you."

Smirk. "Hn." His arm slowly slithered around her to hold her to him. He stared at her, her green eyes dazed as they watched the last of the brilliant sun slowly disappear below the waters; his gaze traveled down to her untouched pink lips.

The lips that he had dreamed of, missed so much.

Just as he was about to surprise her by leaning forward and capturing her mouth with his, someone clapped behind them, startling them both out of their daze.

The claps came slowly, the sound of a metallic slap to skin coming in beats. One—two—three. "Well, well, well," said a businessman that they both knew all too well, "Looks like the lovebirds are back together, ne?" Madara stood, a cruel, mocking smirk adorning his lips as his vermillion eyes held his now standing nephew. He held out his arms, a hand holding a small gun, and pouted. "What's wrong, Sasuke? Not familiar with your uncle?"

"Where did you get that gun?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the formalities that his uncle tossed at him. He eyed the rifle that looked eerily familiar and turned his gaze to the unsettling red eyes of his uncle.

Instead of answering him, Madara wagged the gun at him in a scolding manner and _tsk_-ed. "Now, now, Sasuke, it's not polite to address your Oji-san that way, and you know that." The distorted smirk never left his face. "But if you do wish to know…" His with the gun pointed a path to the house in the distance. "…all I can say is that this man has an entire collection."

Sakura jolted up from her seat on the rocks, standing up in a fierce stance. "What did you do to my dad?" she growled.

The uncle shrugged and chuckled darkly, his eyes narrowing on the rosette. "I never touched your father, my dear." Amusement flickered into his eyes when he saw her flinch at the endearing tone he so _thoughtfully_ tagged at the end.

Sasuke's thoughts were rifling through his mind. '_If he's got that gun—that means—_' He moved his gaze to the shiny black car that was about fifty kilometers away, focusing hard on the passenger seat.

There, bounded tightly by hands and feet and torso, sat his brother as he struggled to untangle the ropes frantically. Itachi's face was stricken with frustration—and _fear_. Their eyes locked together before Itachi's mouth formed into two words: _Don't run._

"Awww, Sasuke—do I still have to teach you about manners, dearest nephew?" asked the old Uchiha as he cocked his gun, aiming it toward his _dearest nephew_. "Itachi's only here because I wanted to save him a front seat"—the smirk, _the smirk_, it was always there—"for when I kill you." He snapped his head toward the pinkette who was currently being ushered behind Sasuke. "And don't think that you'll get off either." His eyes, with her, flashed with bloodlust—with the desire to watch her blood stream down her arms, legs… "I can't have any witnesses living, now, can I?"

The two never realized how close they were to the edge when they tried to step back—and saw rocks tumbling down into the cold, dark waters. The air around them was close to freezing—so what would the water feel like to their warm bodies? There was no way out; they were cornered.

Madara chuckled darkly, his forefinger just about to pull the trigger—

When Sasuke made a lunge and tackled him to the ground, desperately trying to keep the gun away, to keep them from touching _anywhere_ near his Cherry Blossom.

But with Madara, it was too late. In the last thin strip of time, the Uchiha shifted the direction of the barrel, _ever so slightly_, watching the bullet explode and zoom toward—

"_Sakura!"_

The bullet lodged itself into her leg, and the pain (_ohgod,ithurt, it _hurt_!_) exploded, making her lose her balance as she fell back toward the dark, open sea.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note: **MWAHAHAHA! I'm so evil. ;) Just a little note on the translation here, 'cause I research names for a reason—_Chiharu_ means 'a thousand springs.' Sakura's full name, _Haruno Sakura_, means 'Cherry Blossom Tree.' :) "There is only one cherry blossom tree in a thousand springs." Hope that tells you something about the ending! ;) Heh-heh… I'm evil. XD

Thanks to my darling friend _Erin_ for being the first to review the last chapter! :D

Thanks to those who have reviewed recently: _alyssaangel15, _Amirah, _Cheetay, cutecookiechick, _Erin, _Existential Ghost_, _fumiko-chan, jennypooh0203, 7HeartAndSoul7, ILoveSxS, killmeangel24, livelaughlovepen27, LuchyHeartfilia9109, MyLifeInWhole, Rogue Soul Alchemist, sasusakuluver102398, Yukiume_

And once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAKURA-CHAN! :D I love you!


	20. i

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note: **First of all, let me just say how AWESOME it is to have so much love in my inbox. ;D I heart you guys. (hugs you thousand fold) Second—MWAHAHAHAHA! :D I'm so evil. (inserts peace sign here) Don't worry, though, guys. The quote in the last chapter ("There is only one cherry blossom tree every thousand springs") has NOTHING to do with the ending. The one below DOES:

_I like happy endings. :)_

So that should tell you a little bit about how I'm going to end this story. ^_^ So don't worry. S'all good. :D

**Anonymous reviewer with smiley face: **THANKS! :D I love you for sending me a review. ^_^ Whoever you are.

**Erin:** ^_^ I told you that you'd hate me after the last chapter. :D But don't worry. Remember that I like happy endings… and having people going deranged and committing suicide and all that good stuff. Speaking of which, I should really finish _Anna Karenina_… x_x Anyways, you'll love me after this chapter, love. ;) Have fun reading. The title of the songs: _Who Am I to Say_ by Hope (this was my inspirational song for the last chapter; listened to it nonstop while writing Ch. 19) and _Into Your Arms_ by The Maine. :) They're both AWESOME songs. Hope you enjoy them, love! ;)

**ImaFREAK:** I love how you freak out. XD Thanks, love. :) I 'preciate your review! Don't freak too much, though, m'kay?

**Amirah:** Yup. :) Don't you love cliffhangers and how I update? XD I'm evil, yes I am.

Oh, and another note here: I forgot to mention that _**Sakura's dad is in the Japanese police force in Konoha**_. ^_^" Whoops! (Yeah—which is the reason why he's allowed to hold guns inside his home. Normal Japanese citizens aren't allowed to do that. O_O) That shall be very important! :D

And now, the moment that we've all been waiting for—Chapter 20. The last one. :) Enjoy.

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 20**

**i…**

**-xxx-**

The guests, a considerable number of Sakura's high school classmates and friends, were all outside in the backyard, chattering about as they drank and ate and laughed. Karin was currently playfully smacking Suigetsu, shouting at him to _put her down!_, not very amused at his sharkish smile as a response; Hinata was laughing and wiping her boyfriend's mouth as Naruto tried to stuff as much ramen (which Mrs. Haruno so very kindly provided) down his throat; Ino and Shikamaru were talking on the swing, the blonde talking mostly about a few random things while Shika stared at her fondly, muttering 'troublesome woman' every now and then. Everyone else—the _other_ guys—were all busy either eating or playing party games.

Inside the house, Mr. and Mrs. Haruno stood watching their guests from the kitchen as Tamotsu teased his wife, flicking her red hair around with a forefinger.

Akane smiled back at her husband, laughing as she pushed away his hand. "Stop that, Tamotsu!" she said, her hair whipping around in her loosely tied bun. Her eyes strayed back to the party going on outside, eyeing the number of guests and then, pivoting on her heel, the chocolate cake on the counter. Tilting her head up to her husband, she said, "Everything's ready for Sakura now. Do you think you can get her for me?"

He nodded once, running a hand through his white hair as he pushed himself off of the counter and stretched, heading toward the living room to find his cellphone and call his daughter—

—when his ears perked up at the faint, recognizable sound that he knew so well.

The sound of a gun going off.

Turning his head over his shoulder, he looked toward the guests in the backyard, wondering if they had noticed it.

No one.

The alarms started to go off in his mind as his hand went out to the gun shelf and brought out the trusty shotgun that he always seemed to have by his side. '_Dear God…_' he silently prayed, picking his police radio up and muttering a few words to headquarters before he got into the cruiser in his car and started down the road near the ocean. The scenes of nature passed by him; it almost seemed like nature was stalling for time, for something that it didn't want him to reach.

"Dear God," he murmured, pushing the gas pedal a little more. "Please—let them be okay."

**-xxx-**

Itachi had always known that his uncle was trouble. From the very start, when he had seen the way that his uncle's bloody eyes gleam red, when he had seen the cruel, distorted, malicious smirk for the first time, and when he had realized a few important truths in his life. Which was why he was now questioning his sanity when he had agreed to take a ride with Madara and have a 'chat' about some future plans with the company as he struggled to untie the ropes around his legs. The others, discarded at his feet, were now free from his body, liberating his hands and torso.

'_C'mon… c'mon_,' he thought frantically, his eyes darting from the scene unfolding before him—Madara was already holding up the gun, pointing it straight at the two in front of him, the cruel smirk adorning his face. Unconsciously, Itachi started to count as he undid the second to last knot.

'_1…2…3…_'

Madara's lips moved, forming sentences that he couldn't hear. The glass was in the way, but Itachi could still see the tensing in the couples' shoulders. A bead of sweat travelled slowly down his face as his hands faltered. Tearing off the rest of the rope and tossing it aside, he shot out of the car.

'_8… 9… 10…_'

The hundred kilometers became eighty, then fifty as Itachi mentally shouted at his legs, the adrenaline pumping through his veins when he saw Madara's forefinger twitching at the trigger. He had to go faster, faster, faster.

Twenty kilometers. Fourteen seconds.

The next events came too fast—all Itachi saw was a blur of raven hair tackling Madara, the slight twist of his wrist, and the flinching girl who stumbled backward, the bullet destroying her equilibrium in one crucial moment and sending her tumbling over the edge of the cliff, a scream bursting from her lips.

He could feel his legs burning, his eyes glowing red, everything going absolutely _blurry_.

Dear God. _Dear God_.

"_Sakura_!"

His brother's voice was all it took to snap him out of his trance. Itachi felt his body go numb even as he ran the last five meters to where Sasuke was tackling their uncle—

Eighteen seconds. Five meters.

Three seconds too late.

**-xxx-**

"_Sakura_!"

The shout tore itself from his throat, echoing and ringing in his ears as his wide eyes followed the wave of hair that flowed through the air as the beautiful girl (_his Sakura, _his Sakura) toppled over and plummeted down to the waters.

Sasuke couldn't breathe, his ears only hearing the scream that ripped from her throat and echoed in the depths of his mind. He stood there, paralyzed in fear. No. _No_—he had to save her.

The red glint in Madara's eyes flickered, shifting an elbow up in order to catch the youngest Uchiha right in the skull—before he felt a hard thump to his head that loosened his grip and sent him reeling back.

Itachi drew his fist back, moving to restrain his uncle before he turned back to his little brother, keeping his uncle in a headlock as his foot swiftly kicked the handgun out of Madara's reach. "_Go_!" he shouted to Sasuke, clenching his jaw when he felt Madara elbow him hard in the gut, sending stars into his vision as he kept his hold.

Without a second thought and silent thanks, Sasuke dashed toward the edge of the cliff, scanned the waters to see the rosette's whereabouts, and, locating her floundering pink hair with an alarmed eye, dived in and swam in the darkening waters, praying to God that the fading light of the sun would still be there when he reached her.

**-xxx-**

Itachi and Madara were lodged in place—Itachi, struggling to keep his uncle in a headlock as Madara pounded his elbow into his gut, eyeing the gun that was only a mere few feet away. If only he could get his stupid nephew out of the way.

'_No. They _both_ need to be out of the way—everyone must be gone_,' thought Madara, faintly hearing the screams of his old lover in his mind as his thoughts crawled to his plans, to keep the company to himself, to be without selfish family members, to be purely happy within himself and _only_ himself. Yes—_yes_. That would be his perfect world.

Growing desperate, he sent his head reeling backwards, colliding swiftly with Itachi's head. When the younger man's grip loosened, Madara slipped away, clambering over the dirt to grab at the gun. '_It's mine_.'

But Itachi wouldn't let him have any of that. Lunging forward, the younger raven-haired man tackled Madara, keeping him in another headlock, trying to restrain him as best as possible.

The old Uchiha pushed his nephew off and swung at him with an attempt at a right hook, only to be caught by the fist and given a good solid blow to the cheek, sending him stumbling backwards. Clutching at his bruised face, his eyes, following Itachi's form as his nephew pushed himself up swiftly, reaching for the pistol on the ground. Madara sent out a solid kick, landing a nice blow onto Itachi's cheek as he returned the favor. Not waiting to watch Itachi's tumble in the dirt, he staggered over to the handgun and picked it up. Standing up slowly, the uncle pointed the barrel toward Itachi, watching him stand up with evil red orbs as the ever-present warped smirk crawled across his lips. He cocked his gun and chuckled.

Itachi stood on wobbling legs, panting as he narrowed his eyes and stared back at the barrel of the gun.

"Well, well, Itachi," murmured the businessman as he held the pistol in his hand, watching Itachi with vermilion eyes, "Looks like I've won. Any last requests?"

Itachi simply regarded him with a burning stare, letting them speak for him as he straightened a little, returning his uncle's intense gaze with his own. The trademark Uchiha smirk graced his lips. "Actually, Oji-san," he added ironically, "I do have one last request."

Madara didn't lower the gun. "Oh?" pushed the businessman with a sardonic smile. "And what would that be, dearest nephew?"

His nephew mirrored his smirk before he tucked his hands casually in his pockets.

Madara cocked his gun again, his eyes narrowing at his nephew in warning.

"Don't worry, Madara," Itachi deadpanned, fighting the urge to roll his eyes despite the severity of his situation. "I don't have anything in my pockets." They held their staring contest for a while before Itachi broke the silence between them, his eyes moving from the barrel of the gun to his uncle's face. "I propose we play a game."

The tilted corners of Madara's smirk didn't falter. Instead, he lowered the gun to his side, still keeping a sturdy grip on it. "You always seem to know how to get my attention, don't you, Itachi?"

"Hn." The wind tossed his bangs about his face as he simply stood there, planning his next move. There were so many questions that needed to be answered. And Itachi wanted all of them.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke panted, ignoring the salty water that crusted at his face and made his bangs stick to his skin as he struggled to breathe, knowing that she wouldn't last much longer. By now, he was probably about a couple good yards away from the cliff that she had fallen off of—it'd take about a minute or two to get back. The calculation flew from his mind when he heard sputtering in the distance.

'_She's choking_,' was his first thought—then it turned to, '_She's _drowning.'

The rosette floundered about in the waves that spun her, crashed her around. The salt water flew into her face, into her mouth as she struggled to stay afloat, to stay _alive_. She was so scared, _so scared_—she really was going to die this time, wasn't she? Her eyes, although nearly blinded by the brine of the ocean, turned to the fading colors of the sunset. It was getting dark.

And no one was still trying to find her.

At another fierce wave that plowed her into a boulder, she cried out in pain, feeling the sharp edge of it dig into her back—

—and into the spot where the chemical burn had been.

A shriek of agony resounded from the waters; it sounded so hollow, so far away.

It stunned her when she realized that it was her _own_.

But right now, she didn't care—she didn't realize, didn't acknowledge anything but the sticky warmth that she felt oozing down her back, the acute twinge of pain that the salty waves pounding against her successfully managed to magnify, and the force of the seemingly harmless waves that tossed her ruthlessly against the rocks. Her hand unconsciously clasped the iPod in her hand that she somehow managed to keep with her, one of the small pink earbuds still lodged in her ear. The last song that she had listened to had switched, letting in music between the occasional static that threatened to cut off the music; she heard the faint, soothing sound of a male voice following his piano, echoing through her headphones.

_**Cover my eyes, cover my ears**_

_**Tell me these words are a lie**_

_**It can't be true that I'm losing you; the sun cannot fall from the sky**_

A crackling interrupted the systems before it brought her back to the same soothing voice.

_**Can you hear heaven cry the tears of an angel?**_

_**The tears of an angel… (tears of an angel)**_

_**Tears of an angel…**_

Sakura's eyes flooded with the salty waters of the sea. She held on for dear life as another crackle elicited from her headphones.

_**Stop every clock, the stars are in shock**_

_**The river would run to the sea…**_

_**I won't let you fly, I won't say goodbye**_

_**I won't let you slip away from me.**_

A wave crashed against her harshly, jolting her before filling her with disgusting brine of the ocean. The water around her was vermillion red, making her wonder as her vision went blurry whether it was the setting sun that threatened to dip right below the waves or the blood that was seeping from her back.

At another wave, another crash, and she felt herself going under.

**-xxx-**

"We'll play a game of Twenty Questions before you get to kill me, Madara," Itachi almost said lazily, his ebony-brown orbs still gazing carefully at the man before him, ready to take action at any sudden movement. "You will be obliged to answer every question." A pause. "How does that sound?"

"Hn," responded the old Uchiha as he crossed his arm, gun in hand. "Very well. Not like you're going to live to ever repeat such information again." He twirled the gun around in his hand as though it was a key chain that didn't have the extreme potential to put a bullet through someone's head. Personally, Madara really didn't like guns; they just weren't his style. They killed things too quickly and didn't live any agonizing pain. Knives tended to do that job the best—but this time, he decided to leave his lucky pocket knife at home, desperately trying to drown out the screams from the past that had started to haunt him so suddenly just the past few days—

—starting from the day that a certain idiotic, pink-haired girl had defied him, resurrecting in him memories that he thought he had kept at bay.

His jaw clenched unconsciously, not going unnoticed by the younger Uchiha.

Itachi decided to start small. Number _one_. "Why did you drag her into this, Madara?" His voice was soft, trained to be deadly and precise. "There was no reason to."

Madara shrugged halfheartedly. One might have not even called it shrugging at all, considering how he only moved his shoulders up and down, his eyes trained on his oldest nephew. "Like I said," he replied quietly and audibly enough, "it's for insurance."

"Insurance," Itachi repeated in a murmur, watching his uncle's red eyes flicker once, twice. "Whatever could you mean by that?"

_Two_.

Madara chuckled lightly. "Insurance to keep little Sasuke on his leash"—his eyes flashed crimson—"and to make it so that I could ensure my hold of the company."

The ebony-brown orbs on Itachi's face narrowed, clawing his mind for more questions to ask. In the distance, he could hear the waves crashing and the sound of Sasuke's strokes. "Why did you want the company?"

At this question, Madara stiffened. Instantly, he knew that he had made the wrong move, leading himself into his own trap. '_Shit_,' he cursed. This was a question that he had heard so many times—from the rosette, from Fugaku… from _her_. Another wave of screams echoed through his mind before he managed to successfully smother them. Straightening himself, Madara stared right back at the younger man. '_He won't live when I'm done with him_,' he thought, reassuring himself. "I wanted it because of all the power and money—everything that I wanted and needed was _this_." He knew that he was lying to himself, that he needed and wanted _someone_ rather than _something_—but he would never tell Itachi such folly.

"Are you sure that your goal wasn't another?" Itachi pressed on, never changing from his stance. His next sentence came out as a theory, a hypothetical situation that could have been true. Itachi took a gamble. "An attempt to ruin my father and gain something _else_, perhaps…" he mused.

Another stiffening of the jaw and the failure to conceal it affirmed Itachi's suspicions. The Uchiha prodigy grimaced at his verification; God, he had hoped the other way. But, seeing a mental opening, Itachi knew that there was a chance at psychological manipulation. He flipped his bangs out of his eyes with a quick twist of his neck. "It was _someone_, wasn't it?"

Madara had to stifle an oncoming wave of quiet laughter, settling to have that creeping smirk plastered onto his lips instead. "Hn. Very intuitive, aren't we?" He chuckled darkly before he clapped the gun against one of his palms. "Well done, Itachi." Bloody red clashed with ebony-brown eyes as uncle and nephew faced each other, one of them more well-endowed than the other. "Well done."

Amusement didn't reach Itachi's face; he simply stared at his uncle who was clapping rhythmically. The sickening sound of metal against skin almost made Itachi cringe; but being an Uchiha man, he didn't cringe, didn't flinch—he simply stood there, regarding his uncle with indifference and proud arrogance that would have shamed a king. It was simply the way of the Uchiha.

His claps came slower before they ceased, the gun going right back by his side, hand still tense around it. He raised an eyebrow at his nephew. "Aren't you going to ask me who she was?"

Itachi smirked and _hn_-ed. "I've already figured it out."

"Have you now?" Madara challenged him, mocking him with the same tone that Itachi gave him. He folded his arms, giving him that smirk that the both of them knew so well. "Do tell, dearest nephew. I'm curious."

The smirk on Itachi's face faded away as his voice supplied his theory. "You were in love with Mother." What a sight it was to see Madara's face contort into different emotions: stunned, angry, confused, and then, as if he had flicked off a switch inside of himself, nothing at all. The Uchiha tactic had made it all so clear to Itachi that he had his uncle in _check_. "Do confirm my suspicions, Oji-san."

The trademark emotionless face still stayed glued to his face, masterfully controlling the turbulent feelings that threatened to burst from underneath. All the desire, the _face_, the _screams_ seemed to come back tenfold. "So what if I was?" muttered the older man quietly, his red orbs never daring to shift his gaze away. "My affairs with your mother were certainly none too important."

(_He could hear them, the screams that tore from _her_ throat as she begged for him to stop…_)

"To _her_, perhaps," Itachi returned, his eyes breaking through the emotionless mask that Madara had skillfully placed on, "but I know that those 'affairs' were more than simple affairs to you"—the corners of his lips edged up into a small, tempting smirk—"weren't they?"

The older man didn't notice his hands beginning to tremble. "Your mother—"

"—was the entire _reason_ why you couldn't let us have the company," Itachi completed for him.

(_The screams, _the screams_, echoed through his mind—_she _was all that he could hear_.)

His nephew continued to speak, completely unaware of the older man's state of mind. His voice was a smooth baritone, sending the words through his uncle—

(—_like the blade he used to cut _her.)

"She chose my father over you," he murmured, loud enough for his voice to be carried across the distance between them. "You couldn't take it—so you projected that jealousy onto _us_, the poor, defenseless children that could never take Mother away from you—"

(_That face—the face covered in blood that _she _cried over—was his brother's. And he _hated_ it._)

"—ne, Oji-san?"

…

_That beautiful smile, those dark brown eyes, those ebony locks—_

She_ was so beautiful, so happy._

"_Ohayo gozaimasu! Beautiful weather, ne, Madara-kun?"_

…

"_Shut up_." The two words that tore from his throat were malicious, confused. His eyes dilated repeatedly, looking as if they were flickering from a strange, unseen obsidian to their usual vermillion red. Those eyes didn't focus on anything—they stared at the ground as the Uchiha businessman drew in quick, raspy breaths. Both hands, including the gun, were raised to his heads, his eyes clenching shut as his jaw tightened. His eyes flew open. Red to black, black to red, they went.

…

_A shriek of pain. The dripping of blood as metal rode down the soft, untainted skin._

"_Please, stop!"_

_She sobbed as he kissed her._

_One look from her, her pain, her _soul_, poured out to him._

_The teasr that dripped down her face stung—_

_Him, her?_

—_as she sobbed and begged him with the brokenness of an angel without wings._

"_Onegai… stop, Madara…"_

"…_where was the '-kun' from before?"_

…

The sounds grew louder within his head, pounding at the sides of his skull. He squeezed tighter, trying to drown them out to no avail. "_Get out of my head!_"

(_…and now, it was so ironic—_he _was the one begging _her _to stop_.)

His legs, his feet were metal lumps as he clambered across the road to the sandy part where the cliff was. His eyes were wide open, not focusing on anything. The hands_—his_ hands—were still clutching at the sides of his head; he felt the cool metal burning at his flesh as he turned around, his blood-red and bloodshot eyes managing to barely focus on the younger man in front of him. That was his nephew, wasn't it? '_No,_' he thought, his eyes narrowing at the face on the young man's body, '_that's _him.'

"_Fugaku_," he hissed at Itachi, limping over a few steps toward the young man before he burst out in crazed laughter. The hand with the gun raised, and the pistol was pointed at his nephew.

Itachi watched, his eyes widening slightly as he realized his uncle's mental state. '_He's hallucinating…_'

"_Fugaku, you bastard,_" chuckled Madara, his head lolling on one shoulder as he stared at the man before him, the image of his brother, the _anathema_, burning into his mind. This man—he took _her_; he _deserved _to die. The remnants of a distorted smirk were messy on his face, one of his eyes still flickering dangerously in the fading light. Another dark chuckle elicited from his throat. "You spoiled brat—always got what you want."

'_He thinks he's talking to Father._' Itachi didn't move, didn't say anything—Madara would react more nervously if he did.

He cocked his gun for the third time. "You even took _her_ away from me." The handgun shook violently. "I'm going to… to…"

…

"_Madara, please! Don't do—STOP!"_

_Blood was on his hand; he didn't know, didn't know. _

_But he didn't regret it._

"Fugaku_!"_

_She never called his name like that._

_A sob._

"_Madara… what did you do?"_

_The tears, the _hate_, burned him as he saw them in her eyes._

…

"No…" Madara lowered his gun. Hyperventilation attacked him once more. "_No_! She'll get mad at me; she'll _hate _me." Turning around slowly, the hand that held the gun fell limply to his side. He walked toward the edge of the cliff, staring off into the red vermillion sun that matched his eyes.

_Disgust_ and _fear_ were the understatements of what Itachi was feeling. This man, the man that he _believed_ was simply a power-crazy, egotistical businessman, was breaking down, his mental health deteriorating at such an incredibly terrible rate that he could _see_ it.

Madara's eyes had flickered—he had _seen _them, transforming from blood-red to onyx-black and back in seconds. His face seemed to have aged twenty years in the same moment, and with the sun's faint rays that casted shadows upon his face and enhanced the protruding of his cheek bones, created the disturbing image of the living dead, a _zombie_ that should have been put to rest ages ago.

No, _disgust_ and _fear_ were far from it.

It was absolute _revulsion_.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke drove stroke through stroke, plowing through the waves as they pummeled him. He could feel the temperature dropping with the last rays of the sun, the red streams of light barely flickering across the water. He had to find her, had to find her fast.

'_Sakura… where the hell are you?_'

A couple of feet away, he saw her, barely floating and starting to fall under as the waves buffered her, soaking her face with salty water. Her hands were loosely crossed over her chest—as if she were already—

No. Now wasn't the time to think morbid thoughts. He was going to get her back _alive_, damn it. The sight of her slowly going under affirmed that fact to him, sending his heart thumping vigorously in his chest.

Paddling the rest of the distance toward her with tired arms, he dived underwater, scooping her up into his arms before he made his way toward the surface. Sasuke broke through the waters, struggling to hold the rosette above the waters and waves that tossed themselves at the two of them greedily as if hoping to steal some warmth from their bodies and supply the ever temperature-dropping waters with their heat.

Sasuke took a deep breath and hauled Sakura along with him, grimacing at the sight of her bloodied shirt. "Fuck…" he muttered. The adrenaline in his blood pumped—and he made his way, agonizingly slow toward the cliff that was threatening to fade from his sight and into the darkness.

**-xxx-**

The waves and the sound of Madara's gasps compensated for the lack of voices in the air. Minutes passed before Itachi spoke in that same, audible smooth voice.

"That night, Madara," he said, watching the back of his uncle, "the night that Mother and Father died—"

A pause sliced through the air, exposing the extreme tension and mental instability that haunted the empty space.

"—did you kill them?"

The old man didn't answer. His lower lip was trembling, and every second, his eyes widened a bit, revealing the whites bit by bit. A flash of light burst through his mind, and he saw the face of an angel, her face pointed toward the ceiling with her mouth parted. She would have looked as if she were sleeping had it not been the rivers of blood the flowed from her limbs and torso. Madara slowly let his gaze travel to his hands. The colors were all so distorted—_why was the blood still there?_ Why couldn't he wash it _off_? "Their blood…" he said, his voice a mere murmur as his eyes were to the point where his pupils were tiny bead islands in an ocean of white. "..._her_ blood." He turned his hands over—the red liquid covered his hands everywhere. _God, _he could feel it dripping on his face, burning through his mind. "_Why won't it leave me? Why won't it just disappear?_"

Itachi stared. His gaze followed his uncle to his hands—they were clean.

"Oh, _God_, what have I _done_?" His hands clamped his head again as he tried to push away the overwhelming screams that were flooding him—_her _screams, _her_ screams—they were all he could hear.

He was _drowning_.

…

"_Madara…" _

_A slight cough. _

"_Yes, love?" was his question as he wiped the blood on his knife on the chair behind her._

_Her eyes were filled with so many emotions as she stared._

_**Hate.**_

_**Despair.**_

_**Confusion.**_

_And… _

_**Forgiveness.**_

…

He fell to his knees. His arms rested on either side of him as his wide eyes stared up into the now dark, starry sky. "Mikoto…" He spoke her name softly as if in prayer.

…

…

_Her happiness, her smile, her beauty…_

"_Madara-kun! Fugaku-kun!__"_

**It was hard to believe that **_**she**_**—**

_His intimidation, his aura, his small, rare smiles that were only for _him _and _her_..._

"_Hn. Madara." He nodded in acknowledgement before a soft smile crossed his face. "Mikoto."_

—**and **_**he**_**—**

_The love, the happiness, that he felt with them… he messed everything up so badly._

—**were both gone from his life forever.**

…

…

The tears that should have been shed long ago sprang to his eyes and flowed down his cheeks. Madara didn't acknowledge them. "Mikoto… Fugaku…" The grip on his gun tightened.

Itachi stiffened. '_No…_ _he _wouldn't_…_'

Standing up on staggered knees, the old Uchiha stood. Pivoted on his heel like he had done so many times before. And faced his nephew. His eyes were crazed, blood-red from the blood on his hands from past acts. The age on his face was prominent, pushing him forward at least twenty years. He no longer resembled an arrogant, greedy uncle in search of easy money by stealing from his nephews; no, not even. He was a tired, old soul, one who had done and seen so many cruelties and evil deeds in life that he was sure God would never forgive him. But His forgiveness was not one that he seeked. He looked up at the skies, seeming to count the stars. "Fugaku… Mikoto…" he murmured once more. "I wonder… if I'll see you up there." A small, delirious smile. "Will I become a star, too?"

Slowly, he raised the gun in his hand, inching it up his side until it was pressed against his temple.

"No, stop!" If Itachi had heard another voice shout the same thing, he didn't notice. All of his attention was drawn to his uncle. He took a step forward, moving for the first time in a while, only to stagger on his dead feet. "Shit…" he said, kicking his feet in the dirt to wake them up. "Oji-san, please stop!"

But the old man was too far gone. He merely smiled up at the stars once more. A flash of pretty ebony and serious onyx was the picture in his mind—

"_Oji-san!_"

—before he pulled the trigger and disappeared into a flash of painful, bright white.

…

…

_Madara saw it, the bright orb of white light._

_A bright, happy face met his. Ebony locks, beauty meant for a queen._

"_Mikoto…"_

_She took his hand, and it was a moment before he realized that she was also holding another's. _

"_Fugaku."_

_With the simple look on both of their faces, the smiles they wore, no matter how awkward, Madara knew that he felt one thing._

Forgiveness.

_And he felt his mind go numb._

…

…

And as Itachi watched his uncle's blood run down the face that he had known for so long, watched as the once powerful man fell backwards toward the sea, he couldn't help but feel a pang of some sort of sadness and pity for him. He collapsed on his knees, unable to see anything right for a while. He had just witnessed a suicide—someone had just killed himself in his presence.

The faint sound of waters sloshing around a body made him shiver unconsciously.

He was gone. _Uchiha Madara_ was no longer living.

The young man couldn't move. The Uchiha mystery—the murders, the motives were now all solved for and done.

So why did Itachi feel as if he couldn't celebrate?

"Hey—_hey_!"

Itachi snapped out of his reverie and turned around, finding a police cruiser right behind him as a man jumped out, dashing toward him with a shotgun. Itachi could make out green eyes in the darkness, thankful to the moon for lighting some of the way.

"Where's my daughter?" the man asked.

Itachi stiffened. "She fell in the waters below, sir," he answered, cursing underneath his breath for forgetting the other matter at hand. He lifted his gaze to the police officer. "My brother is trying to rescue her." Realizing a key factor in saving her, he jolted up before he dashed past the father and toward the car that Madara had left behind.

Tamotsu stared after him. So this was Sasuke's older brother, the alleged Uchiha prodigy that Konoha had buzzed of for numerous years before the tragedy that had graced the two boys. Jogging over to the edge of the cliff, he could see (thank God for having a moon) the chicken-butt head of a certain raven-haired boy and his daughter within his arms, holding onto the rocks while fighting the waves.

"Sir."

Tamotsu jerked up and around, nearly sighing in relief to see the young man hand him long ropes. Wait—_ropes_? "Son, where did you—"

"I'll explain that later, sir. Right now, our priority is to get those two safely out of the water before they catch hypothermia."

Mr. Haruno nodded once—right. He needed to get down to business. Tossing the ropes over the edge of the cliff, he shouted, "Hey! Uchiha, boy! Grab the ropes, and tie them around yourselves!" He couldn't see anything else below, but when the rope went rigid, he nodded to the other Uchiha boy next to him. "Grab the other one, son."

With a nod and not another word, Itachi gripped the other ropes tightly and pulled, pulling each inch of rope up one by one.

It was agonizingly slow for the both of them.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke held on tightly to the ropes, holding Sakura firmly in his arms. He stared down at her, the brine of the sea covering her unconscious face. "C'mon, Sakura," he said softly, "We're almost there."

Her eyes were half open. Her chest seemed to refuse the air around her, not rising or lowering in waves of breaths.

No. _No._ She couldn't have.

The raven-haired man didn't notice that he had already reached land, that the two men had pulled them over. All he noticed was the way she couldn't respond. His hands were on her arms, on her neck, on her face—_why in the world was she so cold?_

"Sakura…" he murmured her name, his breaths coming in sharp pants. "Sakura, answer me right now if you're still here." Without a response, he pressed his lips to her and pinched her nose, pushing air into her lungs.

And then, she coughed, sea water trickling from her mouth. She turned and looked at the young man next to her. Why did he seem so blurry, so far away? Why was she so _cold_?

"Quick, wrap her in something—the hypothermia's setting in," she heard someone say.

'_Itachi?_' she thought, her head lolling as she shivered unconsciously. "Sas—uke—kun…" She coughed, clutching at the warm blankets that seemed to burn at her skin. She didn't realize that the iPod in her arms was slowly dying.

The young man she had called was still sitting by her side, cradling her into his arms, unaware of the bleeding wound in her back. "I'm here," he said, repeating it over and over—he didn't care if his voice went hoarse or if _he_ was dying from hypothermia. He didn't care about anything except _her_. "I'm here."

On seeing her, Tamotsu wanted to run to her, toss his gun somewhere and hug her so hard that her spine would break. But he knew that there was some work to do. Standing by his police cruiser, he called for the ambulance, telling them of their location. "Yes," he muttered into the phone. "Please. Hurry." _Click_. Then, he turned and watched the scene unfold before him.

Sakura stared up at him, trying to keep herself conscious for him. "Sasuke-kun…" she managed hoarsely, inadvertently trembling. She was so cold, _so cold_. At a harsh cough, the small, squarish item fell out of her hands and flat onto the dirt.

The headphones were lost at sea, but Sasuke could hear the music, playing the song that Sakura had been listening to on a loop. The water had damaged it beyond repair. And it seemed to have damaged her.

_**Cover my eyes, cover my ears**_

_**Tell me these words are a lie**_

_**It can't be true that I'm losing you**_

_**The sun cannot fall from the sky**_

_**Can you hear heaven cry the tears of an angel?**_

__His hands made their way to her face. The sun had already fallen, dipping beneath the ocean waters when he needed it most, when he needed it to guide him.

Her cheeks were cold under his hands. He trembled.

"Sakura," he murmured her name softly. He didn't notice the tears slipping down his cheeks—he _couldn't_. Everything felt so empty, so _numb_ to him. "Sakura, don't…" He gathered her up in his arms. "Don't leave me."

But she couldn't help it. Everything sounded so far away; everything looked so blurry—and she felt so tired and cold. All she could manage was a smile—

"Sakura, _please_!"

—before her eyes slowly closed—

He pulled her to him, trying to stifle his sobs. "Please… don't leave me."

—and slipped away into unconsciousness.

But before she finally slipped off, she heard a soft voice, murmuring three words, words that would make her mother cry, make her father chase him around with a shotgun, make Itachi smirk, and make all of her friends cheer.

And she heard them.

Right before she slipped into the engulfing darkness.

**-xxx-**

Sakura awoke with blurry vision. God—where in the world was she? She tried to move, but a sting in her back and the pain in her leg were too much, and she stopped, settling to give the room a cursory glance with her eyes.

The room had a bright, beautiful view of blooming trees, the diaphanous gold curtains flowing with a soft breeze that decided to come in and greet her. Her sheets were bleach white—her entire bed-set seemed to be. Rails were on one side of her; on the other was a certain raven-haired young man.

Despite the pain she felt pounding on her body, she smiled.

_Sasuke-kun_.

His head was rested by her side as he sat in a nearby chair, his spiky raven locks clashing with the bright white sheets of the bed. His breathing was even, going in and out as he slept. If Sakura had never known him, she would have mistaken him for a little boy, his normally intimidating, handsome face morphed into a more angelic, calm visage. He looked at peace, sleeping there beside her. She smiled when she saw their interlocked hands.

By what in the world was she doing here?

The events of her birthday crashed down upon her. She shuddered and whimpered as she felt her back and leg aching.

Her leg…

That was right. Where _he _shot her…

"You're finally awake."

Her gaze focused on the young man beside her, now wide awake.

The raven-haired man raised his head to look at her with tired eyes, but he didn't stand up—or let go of her hand.

Sakura stayed quiet for a moment; then she opened her mouth—no sound came out. Her throat burned with disuse.

Wordlessly, Sasuke handed her some water, tilting it to her lips as she gulped it down greedily. He wiped the hair out of her face. "Better?"

"Yes," she managed to say, her voice a mere whisper in the wind. "Much better."

His lips covered hers in an instant, pressing onto hers with intense need and surprising gentleness. She felt herself trembling all over again, felt her face slowly heat up under his hot lips that had begun to travel around her face, dropping kisses onto her eyelids, her forehead, her cheeks…

"And this?" he said, his voice husky and needy. He pulled back, and she saw frustration and some other unreadable emotion in his eyes. He placed another kiss to her forehead.

She felt the tears well up behind her eyes without reason. "Yes," she simply whispered, not finding any other words to compensate for her mind-blown state. Another chaste kiss to her lips made her smile. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun."

"You should be," he murmured as he pulled away and placed himself back in his previous seat next to her bedside. "Making all of us worry like that."

"_Us_?"

The door slowly slid open. "SAKURA-CHAN, ARE YOU OKAY IN THERE? I HEARD WHAT HAPPENED, OMIGOD—I'M GOING TO KICK THAT BASTARD'S—"

"Jesus _Christ_, Naruto! Shut _up_, or they're going to kick us out!"

More grumbles from other people were heard from the other side of the door before the voice of a nurse ushered them away.

Sakura chuckled. So they were all here…

The two of them turned their attention to the door again when it slid open and Itachi let himself in. He nodded to both of them as he walked over to Sakura's bedside. "How are you feeling?" It seemed to come out more as a demand rather than a question; but hey, he was an Uchiha. Sakura was used to it.

She gave him a wry smile. "Well, my back and leg are hurting a lot. Other than that, I'm fine."

Another nod. "The doctors said that those two injuries would take about a week or two to get to the point where you can leave without worry." He seated himself at her other side, across from Sasuke. "However, that wasn't what I came in here to speak to you about."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him in silent question.

A heavy silence enclosed them before Itachi spoke. "It's about Madara."

…

…

_ When the ambulance had come, Itachi stared up at the sky. The stars were twinkling brightly in the sky; it made him think about his parents, about his uncle. _

_ And his death…_

_ "Son, you coming or what?" _

_ Itachi turned and saw Sakura's father, gesturing to his cruiser and then glancing toward the ambulance. "Yes, sir." _

_ As he got into the car, his eyes made their way to the sky, and he silently prayed for the first time in a while that his uncle had gotten his wish—to sprout his wings and fly as an angel._

_ The wingless angels that Mother and Father had been on that night._

…

…

"He killed himself?" Sakura asked in disbelief as she heard Itachi speak of his stand-off with his uncle.

Itachi nodded once, very slowly. "Yes. The delirium went to his head—and it seemed like he couldn't take it anymore."

The three of them were quiet, soaking in the rays of sunlight that poured through the window and the translucent curtains.

"Well," mumbled Itachi as he stood up from his seat, "I have to go work out the paperwork with the lawyer. _Ja_." With that, he walked to the sliding door and disappeared to the other side.

Sakura shifted her gaze to the raven-haired man next to her, staring at him for a while before Sasuke met her gaze with his obsidian orbs.

Emerald to onyx, jade to obsidian, green to black—that was all that they saw.

He squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" she asked, her voice a soothing chime. She gave him a small smile.

He kept his gaze on her. "For dragging you into this and getting you hurt."

She kept quiet, her green eyes taking in his handsome face, the one that she hadn't seen for a while. God, she had missed this man. She regretted everything that she had done—not telling him, not talking to him about it, not taking the first action to clean everything up. And it was things like this that got _both of them_ hurt. She chuckled softly. "I'm the one always getting myself into trouble, though."

"Hn…" he simply said.

Sakura leaned forward, not caring about the stretch-y feeling of her back, and pressed her lips gently to his, a kiss to reassure him that it wasn't his fault. She pulled away, resting her forehead against his. "If I can't resist not being with you, then it's my own fault."

"Aa." He moved his lips up to kiss her nose, keeping her gaze. "You can take that fault," he murmured against her skin, "but I'll take another."

"And what would that be?" Her breath hitched when his mouth made its way to her neck.

He chuckled, his quiet laughter rumbling against her soft spot. He didn't fail to notice the way that she shuddered. "I couldn't save your iPod." He braced himself for her anger, for her irritation—but it never came.

Sakura stared at him as she pulled away. '_My iPod_?' Oh. That was right; it was gone, the sea water clogging up all of its systems to the point where it could only repeat one song over and over again. He was fussing over _that_? The strange revelation made her giggle, and she covered her cheeky smile with a soft, small hand. "Sasuke-kun, you're so incredibly weird." She laughed again when she saw the pouting scowl cross his face. Then she smiled, took his hand in hers, watching his large palm cover hers in an instant. "It wasn't that important."

Sasuke frowned, the time when they were in the pool coming back to him. "But when I—"

"It was just an iPod," she asserted. "An iPod with some videos that I would have liked to have kept, but an iPod still." She held his gaze again, forcing herself to drown in his obsidian orbs. "That iPod is full of memories of the past; it was of stuff that I wanted to keep when you were gone, Sasuke-kun." She squeezed his hand and smiled. "But you're here with me now, right?"

Yes. He was.

He brought her hand to his face and brushed his lips against it, keeping her gaze the entire time. "Aa." _Yes, Sakura. I am._

A radiant smile overtook her face. The sunlight coming through the window made her seem like an angel—_his angel_—that came back to life. "See?" she said softly. "You're here with me. That's all that matters."

"Hn…" Sasuke stared at the blankets for a while. "The music was still pretty fun to listen to."

Another smile. "Then we can start another music history together."

He lifted his gaze—emerald met onyx—and he kissed her in silent agreement and—

The tears fell from her eyes, and she realized that they really, really were—

—_in love_.

"Sasuke-kun," she said, "will you tell me what you said to me? Before I blacked out?"

His eyes widened slightly, and he looked away, pink tints starting to adorn his cheeks. "You didn't hear it?"

Sakura laughed. "I did…" She glanced at him before looking down at their intertwined hands and saying softly, "…but I want to hear it again."

"Hn." A small smirk. "Alright." Shifting himself so that he could see those beautiful green eyes, her ruffled pink hair, and angelic face, he looked up at her solemnly and said the words that made the tears fall down her face, over and over again:

"_I love you_."

She held her arms out to him, taking him in and feeling his arms around her. "Kiss me," she whispered into his ears.

And so, he did.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** :D Well then… how was that?

That was the last chapter to this story. BUT! There shall be an epilogue—iLive Happily Ever After. :) I assure you, that shall be great. ^_^

For those of you that like complete titles, here's the rest of the title down below:

…**Love You**

Yeah… see why I couldn't put it up there in the first place? DEAD GIVE AWAY, PEOPLE. (laughs)

Anyways… time to give my thanks. :) The final goodbyes and loves shall be saved for the epilogue.

Thanks to _digzzz_ for being the first one to review my last chapter! :D

Thanks to those who have recently reviewed: Anonymous, _AkatsukiJenny, alyssaangel15, _Amirah, _Amore Inmortal, BananaphoneBob, Black Kunai, Cheetay, ChibiFreak52, cutecookiechick, 7HeartAndSoul7, IceMaidenOfLegend, ILoveSxS, _ImaFreak, _Eremophobic, _Erin_, Existential Ghost, fumiko-chan, jennypooh0203,Luka1Sakura, LucyHeartFilia9109, LLuNArEcLiPsE, naisAJet13, purplexninaxdragon, SilenceIsTheKey, TalentedKlutz, uchihasaime, and Yukiume. _

I love you all. :) Sad to think that it's this close to the end. D:

_Review, review, review_. :)


	21. Epilogue: iLive Happily Ever After

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or the songs used.

**Author's note:** Wow… :) I never thought I'd see the day when I'd actually finish this. And now, here I am—writing the epilogue to my first story. (laughs) I feel like I'm going to cry. :) Tears of joy, of course. The good-byes and last words of a first finished chapter story shall be at the end. I'll find some tissues when I finish. (laughs)

Anyways, to lighten up the angsty load of my soon-to-be emptiness that I shall feel when I finish this, I'm sorry that this didn't come out as fast as I liked to it be, mostly because I was out RUNNING, researching about kimonos and such (you'll understand once you read ;D), and I got "married" to my friend Laelia over Facebook (Ha-ha, it was great). So yeah. :D My excuses. (laughs)

**Livelaughlovepen27: **:) Thank you so much.

**Amirah**: I'm sorry. This is the end of iSakura… (cries) D: I never wanted it to end either. But—here it is.

**Erin:** (laughs) I don't remember what you said about authors that made you cry, actually. (dies) x_x Terrible, I know. But thank you so much. :) The story's not over yet, though. This is the epilogue. And you shall love it. BWAHAHA.

**Sakura xx:** :D Thanks. I appreciate that you like it so much! (cries tears of joy) Alas, this is my last update for you. :) Hope you enjoy.

And special thanks to my TWIN, _**Yukiume**_ for being my **400****th**** reviewer!** :D I hearts you, twin!

**Warning****: OVERLOAD OF FLUFF.**

**-xxx-**

**Epilogue**

**iLive Happily Ever After**

**-xxx-**

A giggle sounded from her lips as she stood at the counter, making breakfast for two. Rosy locks fell down her back in soft waves, a hand pushing some of them aside to make way for lips that explored at her neck.

"Sasuke-kun, stop it!" The rosette stifled a soft moan as he bit down on a sensitive spot on her skin and sucked. Her hands trembled as she felt his hands at her hips. Clearing her throat, she managed to place the eggs onto the nearby plates before she turned around in the embrace of the raven-haired man behind her to face him. She smacked his chest playfully, pouting up at him as he chuckled.

A slow, soft smirk made its way across his face. "You can't expect to stand there and not have me _want_ you," he murmured into her neck, pressing another kiss into her skin.

She hummed in agreement before she gently waved him off. "D'oh, you're such a horny little boy!" A giggle left her lips as she watched him frown and sit at the table, starting on the enticing tomato that sat before him. She sat herself down and smiled, her gaze traveling toward the iPhone in the middle of the table. She closed her eyes as she soaked in the music, listening and smiling to the music.

_**Sittin' here on this lonely dock,**_

_**Watch the rain play on the ocean top**_

_**All the things I feel I need to say,**_

_**I can't explain in any other way…**_

__Green eyes peeked from behind slightly closed eyelids, traveling down to the scar on her leg where a fateful bullet had buried itself. The events of her birthday came back to her, fresh as if they had been yesterday. Everything had happened all so fast that she never saw it coming: the bullet, the near drowning experience, and most of all, the old Uchiha's suicide. Sure, she had heard of it from Itachi and he _was_ the one who shot her, but she still couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him.

.

.

"_Wait… so there was more behind the scenes?" The hospital room was quiet. There were only the three of them, two raven-haired men with a small, fragile-looking rosette who was still wrapped in bandages. She stared at the older of the raven-haired men, green eyes searching for answers._

_ He nodded. "Yes." Itachi shifted his gaze as to stare at both of them—his brother and the pinkette—simultaneously. "Apparently, Mother, Father and Oji-san had a love triangle amongst them." _

_ Sasuke stiffened in his seat. What? His _mother_, the woman who he believed to be so proper and admirable? The frown on his face was hard to ignore. _

_ "Go on," Sakura encouraged, leaning up a little higher in the hospital bed to listen to him. _

_ Itachi cleared his throat. "Mother used to be Oji-san's…" _

_ "Lover?" Sasuke supplied under his breath, audible enough for Itachi's ears. _

_ "Yes. However, in the end, she chose to choose Father over Madara"—his eyes flickered in the morning sunlight—"and that was what caused his impaired judgment…" Itachi lifted his gaze and stared at his little brother. "…and that was what led him to kill Mother and Father."_

_ As Itachi reported the story, telling of Madara's convoluted plan in taking over the company, Sakura's eyes focused on the slow tightening of Sasuke's hands. _

_ They were ash white. _

.

.

Sakura smiled sadly, remember how terrible Sasuke took the information, his frustration practically a part of him each day before Sakura came out of the hospital in three weeks time. He helped her walk again, and she worked to cheer him up, to make him give her his rare smiles and, with the consent of her parents, moved in with him officially, coming back to Konoha with warm welcomes from her former teachers and surprisingly, the rest of the campus. Life on campus dulled to a happier aura, the fangirls staying away from her and Sasuke and the projects all seeming to pass by quickly; and although her mother still held a little grudge against Sasuke, her father soon accepted the raven-haired man into the family.

Itachi and Sasuke were still on their way to mending the bridge of lost time, but, with each others' efforts, they were making it, managing to grunt a hello to each other at work (Sakura always wanted to giggle when she saw them) and occasionally having restaurant nights where they ate and talked business (she always rolled her eyes when she had to come with them).

Her friends, although the shock of her accident did worry them half to death, were happily involved with their beloveds—Karin with Suigetsu, Ino with Shikamaru, Hinata with Naruto, Tenten with Neji—even Itachi had seemed to find a bit of love with his new secretary Yuki (whether he knew that everyone else knew or not). It was amazing at how the world seemed to work.

The drama, the shock, and the pain seemed all a lost part of history now in the two months that had passed.

But Sakura still felt the events of that night like it was etched into her mind, the way that the scar was still on her skin. Life would never be the same anymore.

'_Madara… I hope you've found peace._'

"Sakura."

At the sound of her name on his lips, she snapped out of her reverie. "Ah, sorry, Sasuke-kun!" she replied, chuckling at herself softly. "I was a little distracted."

Smirk. "Hn." He watched as she stood up and went to wash her hands, his eyes softening at the way she smiled as she patted her hands dry. She was a dream to him, this girl. He couldn't believe that he had almost lost her, almost had her disappear from his life forever. If that had happened…

'_I wouldn't know what I'd do…_'

Sure, call him cheesy, call him pathetically in love; but that was what he was. That was _all_ he was when she was with him. He always wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her softly, make her feel beautiful and just take her away; but he knew that he had to hold himself back. She wasn't ready yet. And if she wasn't ready to take that final step with him, then neither was he. Of course, he _was _going to pull his next move, whether she was ready or not…

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said, looking at him with clear, emerald eyes. "What's wrong?"

Regarding her for a moment, he smirked before reaching across the table and grabbing the iPhone. "Hn." He looked back up to her as his fingers went about touching apps. "Would you like to play a game with me?"

Huh. That was odd.

Sakura nodded slowly. "Okay…" Leaning over the table, she asked as her eyes trailed the way his fingers worked at the iPhone, "What are we playing?"

He didn't look up. "Hangman."

Wait. _What?_ Why would Hangman be a _two-player game_? Sakura was mind-blown.

Seeing the blank stare on her face, Sasuke shifted his gaze as he finished setting up the game. "This Hangman is a new app; it's a two-player game in this sense. One person writes a word or a phrase or a sentence, and the other guesses." He handed it over to her. "I wrote my message." Smirk. "I put a timer in, too. See if you can figure it out under a minute."

In that instant, Sakura's blood fired up. Oh, how he knew how she loved challenges. She mirrored his smirk with her own. "Fine then," she said, stretching her hands, "I accept."

Her eyes counted the number of spaces. '_Thirteen_,' she thought, '_and with a comma after the seventh…_' Always go for the vowels first. She typed in an 'A.' In a second, the second, ninth, and the last space were filled. Nice. She stared hard at the six spaces after the comma, with the 'A's filled in at the second and last spots. Her fingers slipped toward the letters. "You wouldn't be _that_ obvious and put my name in this, would you, Sasuke-kun?" she asked him, eyeing him suspiciously.

Another smirk graced his lips. "Hn."

Whatever _that_ meant.

Well, she was going to try it anyway. _S… K… U… R_. Huh. What do you know? Her name was right there at the end, and at the third and fourth space of the message, the _R_s were present as well. Her eyes widened. '_No way…_' she thought as she typed in an _M _and an _E_. Her hands trembled. There was only one last space. She typed in a _Y_ and stared at the message with teary green orbs.

_M A R R Y M E, S A K U R A_

She raised a hand to cover her mouth. "Oh!" she gasped, looking up from the iPhone to Sasuke.

"Do you remember me telling you about my favorite songs?" she heard Sasuke ask her. A smirk made its way across his lips. "This is the other one."

She finally heard the song, playing in the background again, realizing that all this time, she had been tuning it out.

_**I need to be bold, need to jump in the cold water**_

_**Need to grow older with a girl like you**_

_**Finally see, you were naturally the one to make it so easy**_

_**When you told me the truth.**_

_**Yeah, I'd rather be with you; say you want the same thing, too**_**…**

By now, the tears were running down her face. '_Oh, dear God_,' she thought as she stood up and walked over to her boyfriend who was staring at her with soft, charcoal eyes. In his hand was a small, velvet box that encased a simple silver wedding band with red and white diamonds.

"Well, Sakura?" he murmured softly, staring up at her. '_Please… let me have her, God. Let me have her all to myself_.'

She managed to smile and take a shaky breath through her tears. "I don't know, Sasuke-kun," she said softly, wiping some of the tears away. "Ask me properly."

The night of when he had asked her to be his girlfriend leaped into his mind. "What would you like me to say?" he responded softly, taking her hand.

"I want you to ask me properly and say _please_." A small smile graced her lips. "_With cherries on top_." Apparently she remembered it as well.

Sasuke stifled a groan—but he wanted this. He got down on one knee—and stared up at her with an intense gaze that made her melt. "Haruno Sakura," he started as he held up the ring, "I know that it took me years to figure out that I care for you; and even longer for me to figure out that I love you. But now, I see my future. And it includes you." His gaze seemed to intensify. "I want you to be my better half, my lover, my best friend, and the woman I wake up to in the morning." He watched as her eyes softened at him. "So will you do me the extreme honor of marrying me"—an intense pause stirred before he forced himself to say it—"pretty please with cherries on top?"

Her hands were up at her face, pressed together as if she were praying to God to tell her that this _wasn't _a dream.

And to him, she looked like an angel. An angel that should be his, forever his.

Choking back a sob of joy, she let her hands down, nodded, and launched herself into his arms. "Oh, Sasuke-kun…" she cried into his arms. "Yes." She pulled back a little, still clutching at his sleeves as if to check that he was there in front of her. "I will marry you, Sasuke-kun…"

He stared down at her, breathless at her reply. A rare smile slowly made its way across his lips. A smile that he only gave _her_. He pulled her into his arms, onto his lap, and brought his lips to hers, pressing a strong, passionate kiss as if tattooing his sign onto her, a possessive statement that _she was his_ and only his. "Thank you," he murmured against her lips, his obsidian eyes holding her jade ones with such intensity that Sakura couldn't breathe.

Another kiss, another caress and that was all it took to send her soul away. "Thank you," she heard him say again as she felt more tears of joy drip down her cheeks. She felt his arms around her torso, his sigh that sent shudders down her neck and the tightening of his grip on her. And she loved every single moment of it. To think that she was going to spend her entire life with this man made her so very happy.

So happy that she didn't even notice him slipping the small ring onto her left ring finger.

**-xxx-**

It was finally _the day_. They had been preparing for it for so long, and here it finally was.

The maids of honor were in a room with the soon-to-be bride, already dressed in their _homongi_—and it was absolutely tense.

The young lady fidgeted with the small wedding band on her finger, keeping her eyes on her lap, never once letting her gaze stray to the ever tempting mirror. "Ino," she said softly, "Are you almost done yet?" Another fidget of her hands.

Hinata answered for the blonde. "Not yet, Sakura-chan; please, be a little more patient with us, okay?"

A snort came from one side of the room. "Yeah, Pinky. Just because it's your wedding day doesn't mean that everything'll be super-duper quick and all."

Sakura smiled. "Shush, Karin," she told the redhead before a giggle slipped past her lips. "You know that I have a right to be nervous."

This time, it was Ino's turn to snort. "Jeez, Forehead, don't be; you'll be fine. We're all here for you, anyway—you know," she said casually as she continued to do Sakura's hair, "in case you manage to mess up your big day."

Tenten, busy fixing up the beautiful traditional kimono that Sakura's mother had _demanded_ her wear, nodded her head in agreement and tightened the obi around her waist. "Yeah, Sak—don't be nervous. We're all here with you." Giving the bow around her waist a final touch, Tenten tapped her neck. "Now hurry up and look at yourself, you gorgeous thing."

Oh, God… she _really_ didn't want to. But, of course, being the bride, she had to. Lifting her gaze, she stifled a gasp when she saw her reflection. No makeup had touched her face at all, her friends leaving her complexion the creamy, pale way that it normally was. Her hair was put up in a simple chignon, her bangs managing to escape in small pink wisps as they fell and framed her face as to make her look beautiful and elegant. Her emerald orbs shone brightly as her gaze fell toward her garments. Tenten was a kimono genius—although not very surprising, considering how her family was in charge of a traditional Japanese clothing store and owned everything from the everyday uniforms to the _Uchikake_ that she was wearing.

The _Uchikake_ itself was customarily made for her, fitting for her waist and height. The patterns burst at her from the reflection, almost emitting as if they were emitting their own light. The soft baby blue of the kimono made her body look like a slim part of the sky, drawing attention to the peachy yellow of her obi that was snugly tied around her waist and bringing out the color of her hair and eyes. At the bottom of her kimono were cheery sakuras, only parts of the branches shown. Her eyes widened a little at the small but visible Uchiha emblem (_his_ red and white fan) that was emblazoned onto the color of her kimono. She smiled fondly at it and raised a small, delicate hand, brushing her fingertips against it softly. That silly boy…

A knock at the door snapped her out of her thoughts.

Karin rushed toward the door and put her ear to it. "Who is it? Because if it's the groom, you know you can't come in!"

"It's Mr. and Mrs. Haruno," replied a male voice on the other side. A small giggle was heard.

"Jeez, Tamotsu! Maybe Sakura's not even ready yet."

A grunt. "I just want to see how she's doing."

"You guys can come in!" Ino called, frantically gesturing for Karin to open the door. She swiveled Sakura around just in time for her to see her parents.

Mrs. Haruno gasped. "Oh, dear, you look _beautiful_," she breathed as she walked over and gave her daughter a kiss. "Your beautiful kimono puts my _kurotomesode_ to shame." Standing back up, she put a hand to her mouth, trying to stop the tears from coming; she couldn't help it. This darling girl, _her daughter_, was finally getting married. It made her feel old; it made her feel _empty_ even. Just a little. But the pride and the happiness at the thought of her daughter finding her own happiness and giving her tiny little grandchildren (even if it was with that silly boy) made her heart swell. Akane sighed. "It's a shame that you're going to have to wear Western clothing at the reception…"

Sakura laughed. "I have such a silly mama." She reached up and gave her mother a soothing rub to her arm. A smile graced her lips. "I think I'll look just as fine in Western clothing. I wear it all the time, you know?"

"Yes, but you don't wear long, sexy dresses every day. That's a difference."

"Mom," Sakura groaned, giving her a playful smack to the arm, "I thought we agreed on giving me a Japanese-themed wedding and a Western reception."

Akane almost whined. Almost. She leaned down and gave her daughter another kiss to the forehead. "Whatever makes you happy, darling."

"Hey, Akane," called her husband at the door, tapping his zori as he played with the sleeve of his black kimono, "You do realize that we have a wedding to attend to."

Mama Haruno brought her hands to her face. "Oh! That's right." She laughed at herself. "We're holding up the wedding. Onward, now!" Ushering the maids of honor out of the room and toward the Shinto shrine, her mother gave one last smile and took off.

**-xxx-**

The men stood in front of tall steps in front of an imposing shrine. Shikamaru was laying on a field, watching as the clouds went by; Neji stood nearby, arms folded across his chest…

…and a certain raven-haired man stood at the Shinto shrine, fidgeting with the sleeves of his simple dark blue kimono. His hair still stayed spiky, defying gravity as much as possible with a few discerning locks of black-blue hair that decided to frame his face. His friends stood near him, garbed uniformly in the same dark blue kimono that Sasuke wore.

The blond grinned and draped an arm over his friend's shoulders. "Jeez, teme, I never knew you actually got _nervous_." His blue eyes turned to the sky and a soft smile formed at his lips. "Heh… You know, I always thought that you two'd get together." The eyes that stared at the sky grew distant as memories came back to him, clenching at his heart (_such a beautiful heart of gold_). "Sakura's always been in love with you. So the only hard part was getting you to figure out your feelings for her." Turning to his friend, Naruto stared at the raven-haired man a little bit before a large grin overtook his face. He put his arms over his head. "Guess a good twenty years made it clear to you, ne, teme?"

A small, unrelenting smirk crossed his face. "Hn." _Yes. It did_. He stared back up at the sky, folding his arms across his chest. Closing his eyes, he let his mind wander to her, breathing in the air and imaging her scent and just thinking about her waves of beautiful pink hair and green eyes. He was terrible to her over the years. He knew that. '_But I have the rest of my life now to make up for it._'

"Otouto," Itachi called him softly from behind, "they're here. It's time to start the ceremony."

Sasuke glanced up a little too quickly, his breath catching in his throat as he saw the rosette at the end of the walkway with her father, staring timidly at the ground with all the stares of her relatives.

Her hair—although it wasn't quite visible underneath the traditional hood that was worn by every Japanese bride—was tied up, leaving small wisps of hair to frame her soft, blushing face. The kimono she wore, the soft light blue and the yellow obi, swirled with the colors of her hair and eyes—pink, green, blue, and yellow—and brought out the beautiful pale sakura blossoms on the fringe of her garment. On the collar of her kimono, he could make out the emblem of his family—his red and white fan.

It made almost made him flush with pride. Almost.

He watched as she shifted her gaze from the ground to meet his—and felt the hot stirring of his blood. One gaze; that was all it took for him to be under her spell.

When she reached him at the top of the stairs, her father gave him a good, long stare. "I'm handing her over to you," Tamotsu said, gently taking his daughter's arm away from his. His green eyes pierced Sasuke's onyx ones. "Don't make me regret my decision, you hear?"

"If you _ever_," Akane Haruno whispered harshly to Sasuke, "_ever_ hurt her again, I _will_ come after you. With her father's shotgun. You reckon?"

The raven-haired man nodded once. "Yes, sir." Nodded to Mrs. Haruno. "Ma'am." Holding his arm out to Sakura, he watched as she took his arm timidly and leaned over to her ear. "A little shy today, Sakura?" he murmured in her ear as he led her toward the shrine, keeping his eyes on the ring on her finger—the one that she was going to give to him.

She leaned on him and gave him a soft laugh. "A little," she responded softly, staring up at him. "But I'm happy, too."

Giving her a soft smirk, he led her into the shrine, listening to the traditional music and prepared himself, watching as Sakura's parents and Itachi walked behind them.

In the shrine, a Miko maiden awaited them, bowing to both. "Welcome," she said to everyone present. She smiled at the rosette and the raven-haired man. "Today we are joining these two fortunate young souls, ne?"

Nods from both sides were present.

The maiden nodded concisely. "Alright," she said softly, as she poured some sake into a small dish. She turned to the young couple. "I understand that you two want a more Western approach to the marriage?"

"Hai," Sakura said. "To exchange vows and rings, if that is acceptable."

The young lady bowed humbly. "Of course. It would be my pleasure." She straightened. "Then, we shall begin with the vows." She turned to the raven-haired man. "Uchiha Sasuke-san," she addressed him, "you may speak first."

"Hai," he responded. Turning to her, he slipped the silver wedding band (the one that he had bought for her) off of his finger and held it between two fingers. He looked at her straight in the eyes, with determination and with searching obsidian orbs. "Haruno Sakura," he murmured, "I vow to be the only man for you, to give you my heart and soul and the determination to continue living—as long as you'll want me." He paused to take in her stifled smile, the one that she had kept at bay by biting at her bottom lip. "I do take you to be my lawfully wedded wife."

The maiden nodded and turned to the rosette. "Haruno Sakura-san, you may speak."

Sakura nodded and slipped off the small, simple wedding band off of her ring finger, keeping her eyes toward him. "Hai," she said softly. She cleared her throat once. And spoke. "Uchiha Sasuke," she said, "I vow to be your loving wife—to make it my duty to care for you and to bring you happiness…" She swallowed. "…and to also be your best friend, the one you turn to in your time of need." Another smile. "And I promise that I will always be by your side as your wife and care for our children as a mother. I do take you to be my lawfully wedded husband."

"You may exchange rings."

Taking her hand, he slipped on her silver, diamond-encrusted wedding band, allowing her do the same.

The maiden cleared her throat and held up the dish of sake. "May the close relatives of both parties please approach?"

Sakura's parents and Itachi stepped forward.

"To seal this bond, a drink from both parties must be received." She passed the dish of sake to Itachi first; then to Sakura's parents. After both parties had taken a drink, she nodded. "Now, we must proceed to the sanctuary." She pivoted on her heel. "If you would follow me."

Both Sasuke and Sakura knew that they were going to the Shinto shrine's sanctuary to offer _sakaki_ twigs. It was just the tradition. Locking gazes, they sent each other silent messages.

_It's going to be a long day_, said eyes of ebony.

Emerald eyes sparkled in laughter. _It'll all be worth it afterward_.

**-xxx-**

After that, the ceremony was over. It was short—but of course, all Japanese weddings were. Before they left, Sakura tugged Sasuke over by his sleeve, over to the large bell and the long, thick rope. It was the wishing area, where lovers or friends or even tourists could venture to, toss some money in and make a wish.

The rosette turned to Sasuke and gave him a sweet smile. "Do you have any yen on you?"

"Aa," he responded, proceeding to dig into his pockets.

Sakura put her hands together in excitement as she watched him—_her new husband_—smiled behind her prayer-like hands. Finally. They were finally together at last. She wanted to laugh, wanted to yell to the entire _world_ about her happiness, so much that she had to bite back fits of giggles and joyful laughs back in the Shinto shrine. And now, here she was, with him, Uchiha Sasuke as his wife, about to make a wish with—

Wait. _What did Sasuke have in his hands?_

Sakura took a double take, eyeing the small, unmistakable black item in his palm. She looked up at him with curious emerald orbs.

Sasuke chuckled a bit. "I kept it for a while after it broke," he explained, taking her hand and placing it on top of the iPod. "Couldn't get rid of it…"

She stroked his palm, occasionally touching the small, broken thing. "Why?" It wasn't a question of harsh inquiry, of interrogation or anger and frustration. It was simply a _question_. To find out _why_. Simple as that.

The raven-haired man shrugged. "Don't know. Guess I was just trying to find some good time to throw it away." He stifled a sigh when he felt her fingers massage his hand. "You said that it was just full of sad memories, too," he murmured, wrapping his fingers around both the iPod and her small hand and bringing them up to his lips. He brushed a kiss onto each of her knuckles, keeping her gaze in the small moments of silence. Only the wind blew, surrounding them with the beautiful blossoms of the spring. "Would you do me the honor of throwing away our broken past?" Sasuke finally asked in a murmur.

She bit her lip again, trying to keep the smile and the incredible happiness at bay as she soaked in Sasuke's words.

"Don't do that."

"Huh?" she replied, feeling her face flush at the gentle way he tucked a strand of her loose hair behind her ears.

He stared down at her, glowing with masculine pride at her blush. "Don't stifle your smile. I like it."

Sakura stopped breathing for the moment. Then, as if already obeying his orders as an obedient wife, a luminescent smile spread along her lips, reaching up to grace her beautiful green eyes.

Their places were switched with Sasuke being the one short of breath, his eyes widening at the sight of her radiant smile before they softened. What a beautiful girl… happy, intelligent, beautiful, wonderful, kind—why in the world did she love _him_?

She shook her head at him, not realizing the tenderness in Sasuke's gaze. A giggle dripped from her lips as she stared up at the raven-haired man. "You're such a silly boy," she told him, taking his hand and leading him up the steps to the wishing bell, grabbing the iPod from his hand. Placing it at the sliding area of the offerings, she watched as it slid in and looked toward Sasuke.

He grabbed the rope and pulled twice before he put his hands into a prayer.

Sakura placed her prayer hands toward the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. '_Please let this offering be enough,_' she told the Shinto shrine gods. '_This was our broken past_'—she eyed the raven-haired man next to her, his eyes closed in prayer—'_and now, we wish for a new, happy future._' A small smile graced her lips. '_Please bless us in all the years to come and help us find happiness in each other. It'd make me so happy if we did_.' She slowly broke her hands apart before she joined them at the front of her kimono, waiting silently for Sasuke to finish.

At the exact same moment, he stopped and turned to her. "Ready for the reception?"

The rosette groaned and leaned in to hug him. "Don't remind me." She laughed softly. "I'm so tired alread—_Eep!_"

In one swift moment, Sasuke had managed to sweep her up into his arms, holding her bridal style, watching as her face grew pink.

"Sa-Sasuke-kun, what are you _doing_?" She squealed again when she felt him start to walk and draped her arms around his neck. "Put me down!"

Smirk. "Hn," he muttered before he pressed his lips to hers harshly, his kiss almost screaming with passion. How he wished that Japanese weddings included kissing the bride; all that time, during the ceremony, he wanted to kiss her, to hold her like the beautiful bride that she was and make her smile until her cheeks hurt. How he wanted everything, every part of her so much. He felt her tremble against him and smirked against his lips as he coaxed her mouth open, gently sliding his tongue inside her hot cavern as he walked with her, her small body still in his arms. Then, he pulled away, staring at her half-lidded eyes, darkened with intensity as they stared at him. A small smile was on her face.

"I love you," he murmured to her, feeling her tremble, feeling her erratic breathing against his chest. He brushed his lips against her forehead, watching as she shut her eyes tightly. "So much."

That beautiful beaming smile was on her face again. "I love you, too, Sasuke-kun," she whispered back to him. And she pulled him back into a searing kiss as he carried her to her dressing room to prepare her for the reception, knowing that his silent prayer—'_I only want to see her smile, to hear her say that she loves me_'—was already coming true.

**-xxx-**

The rosette hummed as she went about her early morning routine: wake up, make breakfast and then proceed to continue cuddling (yes, _cuddling_) with her husband before they forced themselves to get out of bed.

Sakura was already in her second year of medical school, already switching out of her general ed classes; she had already completed her music and art credit with flying colors (as usual), and now, she was entering in some more hyper-intensive classes, taking a chemistry and biology course along with her normal psychology and biochem classes.

Sasuke, with his uncle gone and already in possession of a well-paying job, quit his classes and continued to work part time at the family company. It was a flourishing business, and it didn't seem like it was going to be overthrown by any other companies for quite some time.

With Sasuke working only part time and Sakura as a part-time student, they managed to have some time by themselves…

…hence the slight swell of Sakura's stomach.

It was unnoticeable now, but in a few more months, Sakura would have to take classes off for maternity leave and stay in bed _all day_. Ugh. Sounded absolutely terrible.

But, right now, she was happy; she was pregnant with Sasuke's child, happily married and could stay home part of her time. What more could she possibly want?

The sound of footsteps down the hall made her smile. She didn't turning around, already anticipating his presence.

A warm pair of arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her to a nice, toned chest. She felt his lips on her neck, sucking earnestly. "What are you doing up so early all the time?" he murmured, feeling the way she tilted her neck for more of his kisses. He slipped a hand underneath the shirt that she was currently wearing—_his_ shirt from last night—and kneaded her soft flesh in his hands, listening to the way that she stifled her moans. "Come back to bed with me," he said huskily into her ear before he nibbled onto her earlobe.

She moaned when she felt his hard appendage against the small of her back. _God_… why did this man always have the power to drive her _insane_? It should have been illegal. Before she could fall deeper into his trap, she mentally shook herself, struggling to push herself off of the countertop that Sasuke had pressed her against in his antics.

"Ngh… Sasuke-kun… s-stop for a sec…" she panted, biting back a moan when she felt him suck on the sensitive spot on her neck that probably already had red discoloration. She spun around in his arms and stared up at him, panting hard. "Wait—a—minute!" She slowed down her breathing before she spoke again. "I—I have something to tell you." Her voice dropped to a low murmur. "It's… kind of important."

Sasuke frowned, obviously more than slightly frustrated at her refusal. Nevertheless, he pushed himself off of her and sat down by the table, staring at the pink-haired woman who walked over to him and let out a deep breath. "Is there something wrong?" he asked, starting to get a little worried.

She laughed quietly. "No. Not at all." She gave him a smile. "Actually, it's great… here." She grabbed his hand and walked a little closer toward him, giggling a little when she felt him grab her by the waist and pull her into him. She placed his hand onto her lower abdomen and rubbed it.

And he felt the small, almost undetectable lump. His eyes widened. He raised them up to meet her happy, shining emerald eyes and stood up slowly. "You're…"

She nodded, smiling with such love and such intensity that it made him end up—

He gathered her up in his arms and picked her up—spun her around and around, listening to her musical laughter. "You're pregnant," he said, muffled into her skin, her hair as he slowed down and brought the pinkette back to her feet. Leaning down, he tilted up her chin, watching her emerald orbs; and then he was…

—kissing her.

It was soft, slow, filled with so much love that Sakura almost felt the tears come again. She choked them back and wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling against his lips as he picked her up and brought her to the living room couch with him.

**-xxx-**

"No, Sasuke-kun, put on the other one!"

Sakura lay on the bed, her belly swollen to the point where she couldn't see her feet. She watched from the bed as her husband of seven months playing with the iPhone on the iHome radio, waiting for him to play a certain classical music song.

Of course, it was because they wanted something for the baby to hear. Music for an unborn child was said to be very nurturing.

"I want _Moonlight Sonata_, Sasuke-kun," she told him with a tired smile. She rubbed her swollen belly and giggled when she felt a kick. "Apparently so does he."

The raven-haired man gazed at her fondly from where he was, staring at the motherly aura that she gave off. She was so beautiful; she was practically glowing. He gave her a rare smile when he saw her catch his eye and watched the lovely pink blush stain her cheeks. "Actually," he said, "I think I like Chopin's _Fantasie Impromptu_ better." His eyes caught on another song. "Or maybe this…"

Before Sakura could open her mouth to protest, she stopped when she heard and upbeat drum beat and guitar playing and watched as Sasuke sauntered over to the bed, charcoal eyes warm.

_**A perfect day is everyday I'm spending my life with you**_

_**I can't explain how I fall in love with everything that you do**_

_**God sure must like me more than I ever knew**_

'_**Cause I could never ask for more from love and life than you**_

She laughed and smiled when she heard how beautiful it sounded, feeling the love bubbling in her chest when she felt Sasuke's lips covering hers.

'_**Cause I'm lost in the grace of your smile**_

_**To fall in your love is a place I could spend my life**_

_**I know we could take on the world, just you and me, girl**_

_**With nothing but love**_

At the sound of the chorus, the kicking in her stomach resumed.

"Hn. Looks like he likes it, too," murmured Sasuke as he gave Sakura another kiss to the temple and squeezed her hand.

_**And seeing you is seeing how you're making my life so complete**_

_**And knowing you will share all your joy and pain and laughter with me**_

_**God sure must like me more than I ever knew**_

'_**Cause I could never ask for more from love and life than you**_

Her emerald orbs were so captivating, framed by her radiant face. It made him want to kiss her over and over…

"I love you, Sasuke-kun," she murmured, her eyes trailing his face and stopping at his lips.

And those lips pressed against hers again. And again. And again. "I love you, too…"

As they kissed, as Sakura laughed and Sasuke smiled, they both were comforted by the fact that the child—_their baby_—could feel their love and hear them.

The baby was very, very happy.

**-xxx-**

It was a quiet Sunday morning. The Uchiha mansion was quiet. Only a light shone through the windows of the living room.

"Mom, what are you doing up so early?"

A small, raven-haired boy about fourteen years of age stood by the stairs, scratching at his spiky hair while he stifled a yawn and frowned. He looked exactly like his father.

The rosette, who was sitting on the couch and had been flicking through the videos and pictures on the iPhone, turned to her son and smiled sheepishly. "Whoops. Look like I'm caught." She laughed and stood up, brushing off her nightgown as she walked over to her son. "But! I think the question should be why are _you_ up, Ryuu?"

He scowled when she ruffled his hair. "_Mom_," he droned, fixing his hair back up. "You _know_ I don't like it when you do that."

Sakura laughed before she leaned down and gave him a big kiss to the cheek. "Ryuu, do Mommy a favor"—she didn't miss the way that he smirked at her third person speech—"and call Daddy and Takumi up so we can all have breakfast together. 'Kay?"

Ryuu grunted, flicking his hair out of his face. "Yeah." Then, he disappeared down the hall.

Placing the iPhone onto the counter next to her, she hummed along to a pretty piano intro before the sound of a soothing voice came up.

_**You say good morning and good evening**_

_**The day is done and you've come to find**_

_**The words are fleeting, I hear your quiet breathing**_

_**Is something wrong?**_

She giggled when she heard Sasuke groaning and muttering something about '_waking up too early_.' The pancakes were honey-glazed brown by the time that Sasuke and the two boys had come to the kitchen, with Takumi piggy-backed onto Ryuu (who was definitely _not_ going to miss a morning of pancakes).

"Morning," Sasuke mumbled before giving Sakura a kiss to the cheek.

Takumi, who was giggling at his older brother, pointed at his parents. "Eww, Ryuu, did you see that? Daddy kissed Mommy!"

The rosette sighed at her boys and turned around, pancakes on plates. "Now you behave, Takumi," she said, giving him a smile, "before I kiss you, too!"

The little nine-year-old squealed when his mother, pancake plates safely on the table, ruffled his raven-black hair, causing more spikes to appear at the back of his head.

Sasuke sat quietly, a Nutella jar (he had grudgingly accepted the fact that he liked sweets now because of that stupid psychology project) quietly in hand as he watched the scene before him. It was already fourteen years since they had been married… and the love never seemed to wear away. If anything, it kept growing stronger. His eyes traced the way her hand tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear, and he watched as Sakura cut some pancakes up and fed the younger boy.

"Dad, don't hog all of the Nutella."

Sasuke blinked—turned to the fourteen-year-old next to him. Smirk. "Why not, ne, squirt?"

Ryuu puffed his cheeks indignantly. "I'm _not_ a squirt."

Sasuke studied his son, seeing the flame of defiance in his eyes and the way his hair fell in his face. It was almost long enough to tie into a ponytail. A small smirk crossed his face again as he fondly thought of his brother. He poked his son on the forehead. "Alright then, Ryuu. Whatever you say."

He rubbed at the spot where his father poked him and grabbed for the Nutella jar. "Hn…"

The rosette bit back fits of laughter when she heard the Uchiha's trademark saying on Ryuu's lips. Already Ryuu was taking after his father—that simple grunt was clue enough.

A sharp knock on the door made them all turn their attention to the front of the house.

"I'll get it," Sasuke said, striding over to the door, unlocking it and pulling it open.

Itachi stood on the porch, leaning on one of the stone slabs by the door while his secretary stood awfully close, fixing her hair. From the look of his brother's face and the abrupt way that she straightened herself the moment the door opened, Sasuke knew that he had interrupted something slightly personal.

The raven-haired man bit back a smirk as he caught his brother's amused eyes. He opened the door a little wider. "Come in."

Itachi nodded to his little brother as he brushed pass him, pulling the girl by the hand.

"Itachi-ku—er, Uchiha-sama!" said the girl—her name was eluding Sasuke at the moment—as she gave Sasuke a little apologetic smile.

Sasuke waved it off. It was okay; they were Uchihas. It was hard to show their affection enough already, so he didn't blame his brother.

"Oh, good morning, Itachi-san!" greeted the pinkette to her brother-in-law. She waved to the girl next to him. "Oh, is she your girlfriend?" Sakura smiled at the girl's blush. "It's very nice to meet you." She held out a hand. "I'm Sakura. And you?"

The girl took her hand and shook it firmly, returning a smile. "My name's Yuki Etsuko. I'm Uchiha-sama's secretary." She waved at the boys who stared at her curiously. "It's nice to meet you all; I've been dying to meet Uchiha-sama's otouto's family. He's told me so much about you all."

Sakura exchanged looks with her husband, stifling a snicker when she saw the way Itachi stiffened at the way Yuki called him 'Uchiha-sama.'

Probably because he was so used to hearing her say _Itachi-kun_, ne?

"Etsuko-chan, Etsuko-chan!" little Takumi called her, reaching out to her with eager arms. "Can you and Itachi-oji eat with us? Please?" The raven-haired boy turned to his uncle (who was currently leaning on the couch) and gave him a pair of large, ebony-brown eyes, forcing Itachi to look at him. "Ji-chan, please can you and Etsuko-chan stay?"

Itachi stiffened once more, his eyes locked on the small, nine-year-old boy at the dining table. At first, he was going to say that he was busy; his office was already piled with more than enough work, and he _really_ wanted to have some alone time in his office with Yuki. But with one look at his nephew, it made him think twice.

The little boy's spiky raven-black hair, messed up beyond repair, stuck up in the back while a mop of bangs stuck to his forehead before his mother parted them, making way for those large, puppy like dark brown eyes that made his lower lip pout stand out.

"Aw, of course your Ji-chan would love to stay," said Yuki to the little boy, already falling for his antics before she turned to Itachi with a pointed look. "Right, Uchiha-sama?"

Oh, she was going to get it _good_ when he got his hands on her. Letting out a heavy sigh, he turned away and folded his hands over his chest, staring at a blank spot on the table. "Alright," he muttered under his breath, watching as little Takumi cheered and launched himself into his uncle's arms.

"Oh, thank you, Ji-chan!" squealed the little boy, his arms circling his uncle's waist. "I'm so happy now!"

The slight blush on Itachi's face was priceless.

With laughter that filled the house, the Uchiha mansion, once empty and devoid of life for years, was once more lively and bustling—Sakura, busy with the food and the children; Sasuke, watching his wife with fond eyes; Itachi, sitting and watching his nephews from afar with his beloved by his side; and the children, the older giving the younger piggy-back rides around the manor.

All of them were sitting, playing, laughing while the sound of music that resonated from a nearby iHome from an iPhone, full of new memories and new music, that seemed to look over them, guard them, and keep them together as one large, happy whole.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note: **Well… it's all over now. D: The finally ending of iSakura. Before I get to the final good-byes and the last words, I have some things to point out:

Japanese weddings are definitely different from Western type weddings, especially the Japanese ones of the past. Today, they exchange wedding rings now, so it's more popular. I just added the vows part because I really like the thought of vows. :) It makes me happy. Typically though, they exchange rings, have both sides drink sake, and then make sakaki twig offerings. And then it's over. :D Yup. Short weddings. I also had to research on the types of kimonos. (flounders) If you'd like to know about what each of the kimonos that are described in this epilogue, don't hesitate to ask me about it!

Takumi's tag on Itachi, _Ji-chan_. Many Japanese titles have variations; 'Ji-chan' is simply another variation of 'Oji-san.' :D I thought it'd be a little cuter like that. ^_^

So, anyways… onto the last words here.

First of all, thank you all so much for reading and commenting on iSakura—friends especially. :) This is the first intense chapter fic that I have ever finished, and the journey's been really worthwhile. The friends I've made, the inspiration, the bonding and the improvements in my writing have all been really magical. Although there are tons more that could be done to improve this, I'm just going to leave it the way it is. :) Mostly because I'm a little lazy. XD

Yeah—iSakura's ended. D:

_**However:**_ I will be writing companion fics to go with iSakura, ones that include:

-a side story of Itachi's relationship with his secretary (shall be rated M)

-a oneshot of Sasuke and Sakura's wedding night and reception (also shall be rated M)

-and _perhaps_ oneshot of the minor couples (i.e. NaruHina, NejiTen, SuiKarin, and ShikaIno) for their side stories. (_Note: For this, please tell me which couples that you'd prefer I write on—this'll be a popularity type thing_.)

I will be continuing on my other stories, namely _Judging a Book_ and _Comedy Central_ first. My plans are to finish _Herculean_ with a sixth chapter and then alternate updates between my friends' fics. I have more coming soon, so be sure to check out my profile for the sneak peek summaries! :D

Thanks to _Erin_ for being the first to review my last chapter. :D

Thanks to readers who have recently reviewed: _alyssaangel15, _Amirah_, BananaphoneBob, Cheetay, cutecookiechick, digzzz, Eremophobic, ExistentialGhost, fumiko-chan, IceMaidenOfLegend, ILoveSxS, killmeangel24, _livelaughlovepen27,_ Living-Life-to-the-Extreme, love-is-forever15, LucyHeartFilia9109, Miss Bright, MyLifeInWhole, naisAjet13, ninjahugs, purplexninjaxdragon, _rainpelt_, _Sakura xx, _sasusakuluver102398, , TalentedKlutz, uchihasaime, and Yukiume_.

That's all folks. :) Love you all to death.

_Review, review, review_.


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